SAN FRANCISCO — A California law professor was nominated Tuesday for the California Supreme Court, just two months after criticism by Republicans led him to withdraw his candidacy for the second-highest court in the country.
Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, said he did not buy into Republican criticism faced by University of California, Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu after he was nominated by President Obama for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
In fact, Brown said the high-profile failure of Liu’s nomination propelled him to the top of Brown’s list for the California Supreme Court vacancy.
Brown called Liu “an extraordinary man and a distinguished legal scholar” who is battle-tested to win confirmation after being closely vetted and cleared by the Obama administration and “attacked by the best and sharpest politicians in the country.”
It was Brown’s first judicial nomination since taking office in January. Liu would replace Carlos Moreno, who stepped down in February to go into private practice.
After his nomination by Obama, Liu, 40, picked up support from some notable conservatives such as former U.S. Solicitor General Ken Starr, who viewed him as a rising legal scholar. But his nomination was blocked by Republicans, who objected to Liu’s written positions and said he was too inexperienced for the post.
Specifically, some GOP senators took exception to written testimony Liu submitted in 2006 opposing the confirmation of Samuel Alito, who went on to win an appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.
