Goodwin Liu: Obama’s Most Radical Judicial Nominee

Deborah O'Malley / March 23, 2010

It is difficult to imagine the Ninth Circuit as any more radically liberal than it already is. Despite a few stellar judges, the Court is full of liberal activists who have earned it the reputation of having the highest Supreme Court reversal rate of any court in the nation.  But, with his latest judicial nominee, President Obama just may do what seemed impossible.

There are many red flags in the judicial record of Ninth Circuit nominee Goodwin Liu, who is Associate Dean at the University of California Berkeley Law School.  Here are just a few highlights.

• Judicial Philosophy: Though Liu has stressed “constitutional fidelity” in several articles, he has also stated that he “envisions the judiciary…as a culturally situated interpreter of social meaning.”  While this statement makes it ever so clear that Liu is an academic, it also makes clear that he does not understand the judiciary’s role.  Judges are not interpreters of “social meaning.”  They are interpreters of the Constitution and laws.  Regrettably, it is just this sort of loose theory that allows judges to ignore the plain and ordinary meaning of the Constitution and statutes, and to instead replace it with what they personally think is best based upon their subjective interpretation of “social meaning.” (more…)