Source:
New York TimesThe Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved the nomination of Goodwin Liu to be a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, sending him to the full Senate for consideration after a party-line vote of 12 Democrats in favor and seven Republicans opposed.
Mr. Liu, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley, has drawn more Republican opposition than any of President Obama’s other appeals court nominees because he has been open in expressing strong liberal views – like support for affirmative action and same-sex marriage.
Conservative also dislike Mr. Liu because he strongly criticized President George W. Bush’s appointment of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. as too conservative. And they fear that Mr. Obama might later seek to elevate Mr. Liu, 39, to the Supreme Court, which has never had an Asian-American justice.
Today’s vote followed a lengthy discussion in which Republicans criticized Mr. Liu, while Democrats praised him, and both sides criticized each other over the handling of his nomination and of other judicial nominees.
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http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/13/liu-nomination-advances/