Obama Hasn't Been As Bad As Bush For The Judiciary... But That's A Pretty Low Bar

This morning James Oliphant's L.A. Times report had some disheartening news for progressives, especially for progressives disappointed with Obama's mediocre performance of healthcare reform, Wall Street reform, civil liberties, party politics and Afghanistan who at least felt the former law professor would get the judiciary right. He hasn't.

An early chance for the Obama administration to reshape the nation's judiciary-- and counter gains made in the federal courts by conservatives-- appears close to slipping away, due to a combination of White House inattention and Republican opposition.

During President Obama's first year, judicial nominations trickled out of the White House at a far slower pace than in President George W. Bush's first year. Bush announced 11 nominees for federal appeals courts in the fourth month of his tenure. Obama didn't nominate his 11th appeals court judge until November, his 10th month in office.

Moreover, Obama nominees are being confirmed at a much slower rate than those of his predecessor, largely because of the gridlocked Senate.

Key slots stand without nominees, including two on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the body that reviews decisions by federal agencies and a court that is considered second in importance only to the Supreme Court. Federal judicial vacancies nationwide have mushroomed to well over 100, with two dozen more expected before the end of the year. To date, the Obama administration has nominees for just 52 of those slots, and only 17 have been confirmed.

Last week, writing in the Wall Street Journal's Law Blog, Ashby Jones pointed out that Obama's newest-- and best-- nomination, Law Professor Goodwin Liu to the Ninth Circuit, has garnered more immediate trumped up controversy than any federal appellate-court nomination in living memory. Jeff Sessions (KKK-AL), himself a failed judicial nominee and firm believer that only wealthy white males belong on judicial benches, led the charge against Liu. In an interview last week on Fox News, Sessions, said that Liu “believes the Constitution is something judges can manipulate to have it say what they think culture or evolving standards of decency requires on a given day.”

But regardless of Sessions' predictable racist jihad, even staunch conservatives (see video below) admit, as much as they hate to, that Liu's qualifications are "unassailable."

Born to Taiwanese immigrant parents, Liu didn't learn English until he went to school in rural Florida. His parents nudged along his math skills during summer vacations by leaving problems on the kitchen table before they left for work. He wasn't a good reader, he concedes, and had to bone up on vocabulary during all-nighters with the dictionary to get an SAT score good enough to get into Stanford.

But like the marathon runner he has become in recent years, Liu might have been pacing himself.

In the mere dozen years since he graduated from Yale Law School after earning a biology degree and a stint as a Rhodes Scholar, Liu has clerked for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and federal Circuit Judge David S. Tatel. He's worked in private practice for one of the country's biggest law firms, O'Melveny & Myers, and for two government offices during the Clinton administration. He earned tenure, a distinguished teaching award and promotion to associate dean at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, consulted for San Francisco Unified School District and served on the boards of Stanford, the Public Welfare Foundation, the Alliance for Education and the National Women's Law Center. He has also chaired the American Constitution Society and co-written a book on theories of constitutional interpretation.

President Obama's nomination of Liu to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals crowns a legal resume that for most lawyers would span four decades. If confirmed by the Senate, Liu, 39, would become the 28th active judge on the court and the youngest by 16 years. He would also be the only Asian American among the nation's 175 federal appellate judges.

Colleagues describe him as brilliant, indefatigable and likely to apply the law as determined by the Supreme Court even when he disagrees with it. Nevertheless, they expect a rigorous confirmation process when his nomination goes before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Those who are at least somewhat heartened by President Obama's nomination of Goodwin Liu to the Ninth Circuit may want to head over to ConfirmGoodwin.com to get involved. As you can see from this post, the right wing noise machine is already working in overdrive to try to keep Liu from the bench, so now more than ever it's imperative for progressives to stand up for someone like Liu who would make for such an outstanding federal judge.