Goodwin Liu |
That was then, this is now. Goodwin Liu's nomination to sit on the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit was successfully filibustered today, with only one Republican voting to end debate on the nomination and allow an up or down vote. As The New York Times wrote, in a editorial from the last time Liu's nomination was blocked, Liu, is an "exceptionally well-qualified law professor and legal scholar who would be the only Asian-American serving as an active judge on the Ninth Circuit," and that "his potential to fill a future Supreme Court vacancy seems to be the main thing fueling Republican opposition to his nomination."
Republicans cannot legitimately argue that Liu is unqualified. By all accounts he has a brilliant legal mind. He is a law professor at Berkeley, a Yale Law School graduate and a Rhodes Scholar. The American Bar Association gave Liu its highest possible rating. He also has been endorsed by liberals and conservative legal alike. As Steve Benen notes, prominent conservatives such as Richard Painter, White House ethics lawyer under Bush who worked on Roberts and Alito’s nomination, as well as Ken Starr urged his confirmation.
So, what the Republicans have seized on is Liu's strong yet truthful testimony opposing Justice Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court. The Legal Times reports that Senators McCain, Isakson and Graham all cited Liu's 2006 testimony as a reason for blocking him. Lindsay, one of the original Gang of 14, stated: “When Mr. Liu came to the Judiciary Committee and said that, basically, Judge Alito’s philosophy judicially takes us back to the Jim Crow Era, that to me showed an ideological superiority or disdain for conservative ideology that made him in my view an ideologue.”
There you have it. Republicans are refusing to allow Liu's nomination to receive an up or down vote because, as Adam Serwer puts it, "Liu was awful mean to Justice Samuel Alito." Graham cited Liu's Alito testimony as providing the "extraordinary circumstances" to support a filibuster. But what is truly extraordinary is how petty and unprincipled the Republicans are and how the Democrats will continue to do nothing about it.
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