Professor Goodwin Liu nominated to California Supreme Court

The Ninth Circuit’s loss is California’s gain. Governor Jerry Brown has nominated Boalt Hall law professor Goodwin Liu to replace retired Justice Carlos Moreno on the California Supreme Court. President Obama had nominated Liu for a seat on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, but Senate Republicans refused to even let his nomination come up for a vote.

In January, we noted one newspaper editor’s mention of Liu as a potential Supreme Court candidate should his Ninth Circuit nomination fail, as it ultimately did.

One interesting consequence of the Liu nomination is that, if, as is likely, the nomination is approved by the Commission on Judicial Appointments, the Supreme Court will have a majority of Asian-American members in addition to having a female majority.