Senate Committee Hearing on Pro-Abortion Goodwin Liu This Week

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Mar 28, 2011   |   1:47PM   |   Washington, DC

The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on pro-abortion federal appeals court nominee Goodwin Liu, whom President Barack Obama picked for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Liu, liberal a University of California law professor, is slated to come before the panel on Thursday, where he will face strong opposition again from Republicans.

He is a left-wing abortion supporter who conservative legal guru Ed Whelan observed was so left-wing that former “White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel initially vetoed” his candidacy for the Ninth Circuit “on the ground that Liu’s left-wing record made him too controversial.” But Whelan says new White House counsel Robert Bauer “eager to please the Left, successfully pushed back.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee planned to vote on Liu’s nomination on March 17, but Republicans requested the vote be postponed. Instead, the committee approved Edward Chen, an Obama selection for the District Court for the Northern District of California. Pro-life advocates oppose Chen because of his time spent as an attorney for the pro-abortion ACLU.

In December, Democrats gave up on a vote on Liu as a deal brokered between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell with White House officials allowed votes on several less controversial nominees but not Liu.

Family Research Council legislative director Tom McClusky has commented on Liu, saying he is “a firm believer in the rule of international law and has shown nothing but disrespect for the Senate Judiciary Committee.”

And Whelen, writing at National Review, says Liu is a problem because he believes the Constitution to be a “living” document, the same view as those jurists on the Supreme Court who invented an unlimited right to abortion throughout pregnancy in the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton cases. “Goodwin Liu has urged judicial invention (usually in an “interstitial” role) of constitutional rights,” he writes.

Liu “presents a volatile mix of aggressive left-wing ideology and raw inexperience,” Whelan adds.

“Liu is closely aligned with various left-wing groups. For example, he is (or recently was) on the boards of directors of the American Constitution Society, the ACLU of Northern California, and the National Women’s Law Center. He apparently practiced law for about two years,” he notes.

Liu has said he believes in the pro-abortion notion of a changing Constitution that can, for example, allow for unlimited abortion rights.

“What we mean by fidelity is that the Constitution should be interpreted in ways that adapt its principles and its text to the challenges and conditions of our society in every succeeding generation,” Liu has said.

Liu clerked for pro-abortion Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, worked in the Clinton administration, and spoke out against Supreme Court nominees John Roberts and Samuel Alito.

ACTION: Contact members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and urge opposition to Liu’s nomination.