President Barack Obama will name Berkeley Law Professor Goodwin Liu to serve on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, making him the only active Asian-American judge on that court -- or possibly any federal appellate court -- if he navigates the confirmation process with the kind of credentials some conservatives love to hate.
Obama plans to send Liu's nomination to Capitol Hill today, according to a senior administration official, adding Liu's name to the list of seven other appellate court nominees currently awaiting approval from the Senate.
A prolific writer who has supported school choice as a solution to problems in inner-city education, Liu has served as faculty advisor to the California College Prep Academy, a public charter school, and thus came to the White House with the recommendation of some conservatives. At age 39, Liu's confirmation to the appellate court could eventually make him an attractive candidate for a future Supreme Court nomination.
In the political world, though, Liu is sure to be remembered as a past critic of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, co-authoring a report critical of Alito's record on capital cases as a lower court judge- the
