Governor Brown Nominates UC Berkeley Professor Goodwin Liu to California Supreme Court

Governor Jerry Brown today nominated Boalt Hall law professor Gordon Liu to the California Supreme Court to replace retiring Justice Carlos Moreno.

If confirmed, Liu would bring sterling credentials and a classically American story of upward mobility to the California Supreme Court. The son of Taiwanese immigrants, Liu attended public schools growing up in Sacramento, before attending college at Stanford and then Yale Law School, after which he clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Liu joined the faculty at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law in 2003 after having worked in private practice in Washington, D.C.

The California Bar’s Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation will first consider the Liu nomination, and make a non-binding recommendation to the Commission on Judicial Appointments, which will then schedule at least one public hearing. It is the Commission on Judicial Appointments that must ultimately confirm Liu or not.

Despite having withdrawn his nomination by President Obama to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in response to a successful filibuster by Senate Republicans, Professor Liu is expected to enjoy a relatively easy confirmation to the California Supreme Court.