In the wake of last week’s unsuccessful cloture vote, Goodwin Liu has withdrawn his name as a nominee for the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Liu, 40, expressed his gratitude to President Obama for nominating him and then asked to withdraw his name from future confirmation votes. Liu, an associate dean and professor of law at Berkely University, said he wanted to move forward with his family’s plans.
“With no possibility of an up-or-down vote on the horizon, my family and I have decided that it is time for us to regain the ability to make plans for the future,” Liu wrote in a letter to Obama on Wednesday. Berkeley made the letter public.
Liu also noted the “desperate need for judges” to fill Ninth Circuit seats and said “it is now clear that continuing my nomination will not address that need any time soon.”
The son of Taiwanese immigrants, Liu was nominated in February 2010.
Liberty Counsel Action sent a letter to U.S. Senators opposing Liu’s confirmation on behalf of 750,000 members nationwide.
LCA’s letter to each senator cited concerns about Liu’s “lack of experience, his judicial philosophy, ideology, and his hostility toward Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. … Goodwin Liu has no experience as a trial attorney and actually only practiced law for about two years.”
“Judges should be fair and impartial, not radical ideologues. Judicial activism undermines the rule of law,” says Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel and dean of Liberty University School of Law. “Goodwin Liu is a classic example of someone who should not serve on the bench. It is unfortunate that some senators elevated party affiliation over common sense and voted for someone who would have disregarded the law in favor of radical activism. I am pleased, however, that enough senators had the sense to do the right thing and vote against Liu’s confirmation.”
