OCA Thanks Goodwin Liu for Courageous Fight to Fill Judicial Emergency

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

20 May 2011

CONTACT

George C. Wu | Executive Director

202 223 5500 | gwu@ocanational.org

WASHINGTON - OCA, a national Asian Pacific American (APA) social justice organization, is severely disappointed in yesterday's failed cloture petition to give Goodwin Liu a fair vote on the merits of his nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Over 400 days after his initial nomination, Liu and his supporters from both sides of the political spectrum were denied an up-or-down vote by a minority of Senators.

"When the democratic systems fails to give a highly qualified nominee, to a seat deemed a judicial emergency in the U.S., a basic up-or-down vote, we all lose," said OCA Executive Director George C. Wu. "OCA thanks Goodwin Liu for his tireless efforts to serve the people of the United States as a judge and for the inspiration for civic engagement his nomination provided for the APA community."

Yesterday's vote on the petition for cloture – which would have ended debate and allowed for a full Senate vote on Liu’s merits – did not get the 60 votes required to end debate. Fifty-two Senators voted to end debate to forty-three nays; with one Senator voting present and four Senators not voting. A simple majority of votes is needed for a vote on the merits of a judicial nomination.

Liu is an Associate Dean and Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. An acclaimed scholar, teacher, and lawyer, with experience in both the private and public sectors, Liu is a nationally-recognized expert on constitutional law and education law and policy.

Prior to joining the Berkeley faculty in 2003, Liu was an associate at O'Melveny & Myers in Washington, D.C. He clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and for Judge David S. Tatel on the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Between his clerkships, Liu served as a Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary at the U.S. Department of Education. He has also worked for the Corporation for National Service, where he helped launch the AmeriCorps program.

Liu was born in Augusta, Georgia, to parents who emigrated from Taiwan, and he grew up in Sacramento where he attended public schools. Liu earned a B.S. from Stanford University, an M.A from Oxford (where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar), and a J.D. from Yale Law School