{"id":464016,"date":"2010-03-23T19:57:06","date_gmt":"2010-03-23T23:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.szone.us\/f95\/goodwin-liu-obama-s-most-radical-judicial-nominee-41275\/"},"modified":"2010-03-23T19:57:06","modified_gmt":"2010-03-23T23:57:06","slug":"goodwin-liu-obama%c2%92s-most-radical-judicial-nominee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/464016","title":{"rendered":"Goodwin Liu: Obama\u0092s Most Radical Judicial Nominee"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>On 03.23.10 11:50 AM posted by Deborah O&#8217;Malley<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Judicial Philosophy:<\/b> Though Liu      has stressed \u0093constitutional fidelity\u0094 in several articles, he has also      stated that he \u0093envisions the judiciary\u0085as a culturally situated      interpreter of social meaning.\u0094*      While this statement makes it ever so clear that Liu is an      academic, it also makes clear that he does not understand the judiciary\u0092s      role.* Judges are not interpreters      of \u0093social meaning.\u0094* 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 \u0093social meaning.\u0094&lt;spanid=&quot;more-29563&quot;&gt;&lt;\/span&gt;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Constitutional Welfare Rights<\/b>: Liu      has a strong penchant for redistribution, and it is clear that he believes      judges should play a role in it.* In      an article titled, \u0093Rethinking Constitutional Welfare Rights,\u0094 he lays out      his vision for the creation of a constitutional right to welfare.* He desires a \u0093reinvigorated public      dialogue\u0094 about \u0093our commitments to mutual aid and distributive justice      across a broad range of social goods.\u0094*      Once this dialogue takes place among policymakers, Liu wants the      courts to recognize \u0093a fundamental right to education or housing or      medical care\u0085as an interpretation and consolidation of the values we have      gradually internalized as a society.\u0094<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In another article, he stated that \u0093negative rights against government oppression\u0094 and \u0093positive rights to government assistance\u0094 have \u0093equal constitutional status\u0094 because \u0093both are essential to liberty.\u0094<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately for Liu, our Constitution\u0092s Framers disagree.* They recognized that these two concepts are indeed mutually exclusive: if we allow the government to \u0093assist us\u0094 by giving it a redistributive power over our personal property and the power to control health care, education, etc., individual liberty will necessarily erode. Indeed the Framers sought to prevent such redistribution by limiting government\u0092s power and providing what Liu considers as \u0093negative\u0094 property rights.* These protections have already been eroded by activist judges, and it is clear that Liu would like to erode those protections still further.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Radical on Death Penalty:<\/b> Liu has      been outspoken in his opposition to the death penalty.* Kent Scheidegger of the Criminal Justice      Legal Foundation has &lt;ahref=&quot;http:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.com\/crimblog\/2010\/02\/moving-usca9-in-the-wrong-dire.html&quot;&gt;stated that, \u0093To anyone familiar with the death penalty debate, it is painfully      evident that Professor Liu takes the murderers\u0092 side on every debatable      point.* If confirmed, there is no      doubt in my mind that he will be a vote to obstruct the enforcement of      capital punishment in virtually every case.\u0094<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Reasonable people can disagree on death penalty policy, but it is not up to judges to determine that policy or undermine it through judicial obstruction.* The American people decide through the democratic process whether their respective states will utilize the death penalty.* The judge\u0092s role in capital habeas corpus cases in the federal court of appeals system is predominantly to assure that grave errors were not made in the process\u0097the questions of guilt or innocence and sentencing are reserved first and foremost for juries and are decided by multiple state and federal appeals before a federal appeals court judge takes a first look at the case.* But too many activist federal court of appeals judges treat death penalty cases like they are hearing them <i>de novo<\/i>\u0097like it is their job to put themselves in the place of the jury, so that they can impose their own preferences, rather than simply review for actual legal errors.* Given Mr. Scheidegger\u0092s warning, there is little doubt that Liu would be just this sort of judge.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Racial Preferences and School Choice: <\/b>&lt;ahref=&quot;http:\/\/bench.nationalreview.com\/post\/?q=Y2JmNWRmYzFhOTkyZWZjNjI5OGM1YmI1M2IwOTcwMWY=&quot;&gt;E  d      Whelan has pointed out that, in an article titled \u0093&lt;ahref=&quot;http:\/\/www.insidebayarea.com\/crime-courts\/ci_14520220?source=rss&quot;&gt;School      Choice to Achieve Desegregation,\u0094 Liu never embraces or even states      his agreement with the Supreme Court\u0092s 2002 ruling in <i>Zelman v. Simmons-Ha<\/i>rris that school-choice programs that      include religious schools are constitutional.* However, Liu is willing to embrace      school choice if it is directed to the illegal end of ensuring racial      quotas in schools.* For example, Liu      advocates \u0093a funding set-aside in federal and state charter programs to      create and reward charter schools that reflect the racial and socioeconomic      diversity of the metropolitan area\u0085where they are located.\u0094* These set aside programs should \u0093use the      racial composition of the broader metropolitan area as the reference point      for measuring and rewarding diversity.\u0094<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Liu\u0092s other writings also make clear that he would impose racial preferences directly if he could.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Lacking Experience:<\/b> &lt;ahref=&quot;http:\/\/bench.nationalreview.com\/post\/?q=NzgzZTMwMTZjNTkxM2FmZTkzY2E0NmQ3YmQxNTA2OTU=&quot;&gt;E  d      Whelan and <i>&lt;ahref=&quot;http:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2010\/mar\/03\/a-constitutional-right-to-welfare\/&quot;&gt;The      Washington Times<\/i> have noted that Liu does not even meet the standard      for federal judgeships outlined by the American Bar Association, which      includes substantial courtroom and trial experience and at least 12 years      practicing law.* Thirty-nine year      old Liu has no experience as a trial lawyer and has not even been out of law      school for twelve years.* (The fact      that the ABA      nonetheless rated him \u0093well-qualified\u0094 suggests that their ratings are      perhaps based on something other than qualification.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Many pundits are speculating that the Ninth Circuit may be Liu\u0092s stepping stone to the Supreme Court. *If this is the case, he could potentially be one of the most activist justices the High Court has seen yet.* Even the <i>&lt;ahref=&quot;http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2010\/03\/21\/AR2010032102581.html&quot;&gt;Washington Post<\/i> admits that Obama\u0092s other federal nominees have been \u0093more moderate\u0094 than Liu.<\/p>\n<p>Liu\u0092s confirmation hearing before the Senate is tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.heritage.org\/2010\/03\/23\/goodwin-liu-obama%e2%80%99s-most-radical-judicial-nominee\/\" >http:\/\/blog.heritage.org\/2010\/03\/23\/&#8230;icial-nominee\/<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On 03.23.10 11:50 AM posted by Deborah O&#8217;Malley 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-464016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464016\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}