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Goodwin Liu
2011 - Present
2035
14
Goodwin Liu is a judge of the California Supreme Court. He assumed office on September 1, 2011. His current term ends on January 8, 2035.
Liu ran for re-election for judge of the California Supreme Court. He won in the retention election on November 8, 2022.
Liu was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown and confirmed on September 1, 2011.[1][2] To read more about judicial selection in California, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[3] Liu received a confidence score of Strong Democrat.[4] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Liu earned his undergraduate degree from Stanford University in 1991 and his master's degree from Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship. Liu earned his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1998.[2] After his admission to the bar, Liu clerked for Judge David Tatel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. After clerking for Judge Tatel, Liu worked as a special assistant to the deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Education and as a senior program officer at the Corporation for National Service (AmeriCorps). Liu clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in October of 2000.[5] In 2001, he entered private practice as an appellate litigator at O'Melveny & Myers in Washington, D.C., where he worked until 2003 when he accepted a position as a professor of law at the UC Berkeley School of Law, Boalt Hall. Liu was named associate dean of UC Berkeley School of Law in 2008, where he worked until his appointment to the California Supreme Court in 2011.[6][7] In 2007 Liu was awarded the Steven S. Goldberg Award from the Education Law Association.[8] Liu was the chairman of the American Constitution Society's Board of Directors and was a member of the Obama-Biden Education Policy and Agency Review Presidential Transition Team. In 2008, Liu became a member of the American Law Institute.[7]
Elections
2022
See also: California Supreme Court elections, 2022
California Supreme Court, Goodwin Liu's seat
Goodwin Liu was retained to the California Supreme Court on November 8, 2022 with 69.3% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
69.3
|
5,908,904 | ||
No |
30.7
|
2,623,045 | |||
Total Votes |
8,531,949 | ||||
|
|
2014
- See also: California judicial elections, 2014
Liu was retained to the California Supreme Court with 67.1 percent of the vote on November 4, 2014. [9]
2011
In July 2011, Liu was nominated to the California Supreme Court by Governor Jerry Brown (D).[10] In advance of his confirmation, the California State Bar Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation gave Liu a rating of "exceptionally well qualified" on August 29, 2011.[11][12]
2010
 |
| Nominee Information |
| Name: Goodwin Liu |
| Court: Ninth Circuit |
| Progress |
| Withdrawn 455 days after nomination. |
 Nominated: February 24, 2010
|
| ABA Rating: Unanimously Well Qualified
|
| Questionnaire: Questionnaire |
| Hearing: April 16, 2010
|
| QFRs: QFRs (Hover over QFRs to read more) |
| Renom. QFRs: Renom. QFRs |
| Reported: April 7, 2011 May 13, 2010, September 23, 2010 |
 Confirmed:
|
| Withdrawn: May 25, 2011
|
On February 24, 2010, President Barack Obama nominated Liu to fill a vacancy on the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.[13] However, after a filibuster in the Senate, Liu withdrew his nomination in a letter to the President on May 25, 2011.[14]
Liu received a rating of "Unanimously Well Qualified" from the American Bar Association.[15]
Judiciary Committee hearing
A hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee was held on April 16, 2010, and you can find Liu's public questionnaire here, his questions for the record here and additional questions for the record here. A committee vote was scheduled for May 6, 2010.[16] The committee voted 12 -7 along party lines to send Liu to the full Senate for confirmation.[17][18][19]
Liu submitted to the committee supplementary materials dated March 3, 2010. In his explanatory letter to committee chairman Patrick Leahy (D), Liu was apologetic for omitting the materials in his initial questionnaire, saying the "original submission of my Senate Questionnaire on February 24 inadvertently omitted a number of items. I would like to offer a sincere and personal apology to you, to the Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R) and to the entire Committee for the omissions in my original submission."[20]
Nomination returned to President
On August 5, 2010, the Senate returned the nomination of Liu to President Obama, refusing to debate and schedule a vote before the body adjourned for its month-long recess.
On September 13, 2010, President Obama again submitted Liu's nomination to the U.S. Senate.[21]
On September 23, 2010, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 12-7 to send Liu's nomination to the U.S. Senate for a vote.[22]
Filibuster and withdrawal
Liu's nomination was returned to the president at the end of the 111th Congress. President Obama resubmitted the nomination on January 5, 2011.
On May 19, 2011, Senate Republicans blocked a vote by Democrats to end a filibuster on giving Liu a yes-or-no confirmation vote. The vote was 52 in favor of ending the filibuster, to 43 not in favor, not reaching the 60 votes needed to end the deadlock.[23] Liu withdrew his nomination on May 25, 2011, after Senate Republicans blocked a vote to end the filibuster that had been delaying his confirmation.[14]
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Goodwin Liu did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[24]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[25]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Goodwin
Liu
California
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Strong Democrat - Judicial Selection Method:
Direct gubernatorial appointment - Key Factors:
- Donated over $2,000 to Democratic candidates
- Held political office as a Democrat
- Was a registered Democrat before 2020
Partisan Profile
Details:
Liu donated $2,150 to Democratic candidates and organizations. He served in the U.S. Department of Education under President Barack Obama’s (D) administration. Liu was registered as a Democrat prior to 2020. He was appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown (D). At the time of his appointment, California was a Democratic trifecta.
State supreme court judicial selection in California
- See also: Judicial selection in California
The seven justices of the California Supreme Court are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Commission on Judicial Appointments. The state bar's Commission on Judicial Nominee Evaluation—also known as the "Jenny Commission"—is required to perform an extensive investigation on prospective appointees. The commission recommends candidates to the governor after examining their qualifications and fitness, ranking them as exceptionally well qualified, well qualified, qualified, or not qualified. The commission is composed of attorneys and public members.[26][27] Although the governor is not bound to these recommendations, the Commission on Judicial Appointments can approve or veto the appointment by majority vote.[28]
Following confirmation from the Commission on Judicial Appointments, the appointed justice is sworn into office and is subject to voter approval at the next gubernatorial election. The appointed justice must be confirmed by voters via a yes-no retention election. According to the California Constitution, the term for a supreme court justice is 12 years. If retained by the voters, the appointed justice remains in office but their term may depend on their predecessor's term. If the predecessor served part of their term before leaving office, the appointed justice would be retained to serve the remainder of their predecessor's term. This would be for either four or eight years. At the end of that term, the justice again must be confirmed by the voters at a gubernatorial election to begin a new 12-year term.[29][30] If a justice has been appointed to a seat where the predecessor's term would have expired the January 1 immediately after that November gubernatorial election, then the justice would serve a full 12-year term.[31]
Qualifications
To serve as a justice, a candidate must have practiced law for at least 10 years in California or served as a judge in California for at least 10 years.[31]
Chief justice
The court uses the same process described above for selecting its chief justice. The governor, with commission approval, appoints a chief justice for a full 12-year term.[32]
Vacancies
Vacancies are filled by gubernatorial appointment. Appointed judges are required to participate in yes-no retention elections occurring at the time of the next gubernatorial race, which is held every four years.[31]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
2022 Elections
External links
|
Officeholder California Supreme Court |
Footnotes
- ↑ San Francisco Chronicle, "Goodwin Liu confirmed to Calif. Supreme Court," September 1, 2011
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 California Courts, "Associate Justice Goodwin Liu Biography," accessed August 18, 2014
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ California Courts, "Associate Justice Goodwin H. Liu," accessed February 1, 2019
- ↑ San Francisco Chronicle, "Obama nominates Berkeley prof to appeals court," February 25, 2010
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 UC Berkeley Law, "Goodwin Liu Faculty Profile," accessed August 18, 2014
- ↑ UC Berkeley, "UC Berkeley School of Law Assistant Professor Goodwin Liu Wins Steven S. Goldberg Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Education Law," accessed October 23, 2007
- ↑ California Secretary of State Voter Guide, "Justices of the Supreme Court," accessed August 26, 2014
- ↑ Office of the California Governor, Press Release: "Governor Brown Nominates Goodwin Liu for California Supreme Court," July 26, 2011
- ↑ Los Angeles Times, "California Supreme Court appointee got state bar's highest rating," August 29, 2011
- ↑ Law.com, "JNE Gives Goodwin Liu Highest Rating," August 29, 2011
- ↑ White House Press Release, "President Obama Nominates Goodwin Liu for the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit"
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 The Washington Times, "Liu calls it quits in quest for judgeship," May 25, 2011
- ↑ Senate Judiciary Committee, "Judicial Nomination Materials," accessed April 23, 2014
- ↑ San Francisco Chronicle "Panel to vote on judicial nominee Goodwin Liu," May 6, 2010
- ↑ Bloomberg Businessweek "Liu Approved by U.S. Senate Panel for Appeals Court," May 13, 2010
- ↑ New York Times:The Caucus "Liu Nomination Advances," May 13, 2010
- ↑ San Francisco Chronicle "UC Berkeley's Goodwin Liu wins panel approval," May 14, 2010
- ↑ ABC Political Punch Blog "Controversial Appellate Court Nominee Apologizes for Omissions in Senate Questionnaire; GOP Says 'Nomination in Jeopardy'," April 6, 2010
- ↑ The White House, Press Release: "Presidential Nominations Sent to Senate," September 13, 2010
- ↑ San Francisco Chronicle, "Senate panel OKs Liu, Chen nominations - again," September 24, 2010
- ↑ Associated Press, "Goodwin Liu Blocked From Confirmation By Senate Republicans," May 19, 2011
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ The State Bar of California, "Background," accessed March 27, 2023
- ↑ The State Bar of California, "Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation," accessed March 27, 2023
- ↑ Brennan Center for Justice, "Judicial Selection: An Interactive Map," accessed March 23, 2023
- ↑ California Legislative Information, "Article VI Judicial Sec. 16.," accessed March 27, 2023
- ↑ California Secretary of State, "Justices of the Supreme Court," accessed March 27, 2023
- ↑ 31.0 31.1 31.2 California Courts, "Judicial Selection: How California Chooses Its Judges and Justices," accessed March 27, 2023
- ↑ Justia, "Supreme Court of California Decisions," accessed March 27, 2023
Federal courts:
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Central District of California, Eastern District of California, Northern District of California, Southern District of California • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Central District of California, Eastern District of California, Northern District of California, Southern District of California
State courts:
California Supreme Court • California Courts of Appeal • California Superior Courts
State resources:
Courts in California • California judicial elections • Judicial selection in California
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