"Berkeley professor Goodwin Liu, son of immigrants, would be youngest judge on the appeals court. He clerked for Ruth Bader Ginsburg and worked in government offices during the Clinton administration."
Reporting from Berkeley, Calif. - Goodwin Liu may be poised to become the youngest judge on the nation's busiest appeals court, but he was nonetheless a late bloomer.
Born to Taiwanese immigrant parents, Liu didn't learn English until he went to school in rural Florida. His parents nudged along his math skills during summer vacations by leaving problems on the kitchen table before they left for work. He wasn't a good reader, he concedes, and had to bone up on vocabulary during all-nighters with the dictionary to get an SAT score good enough to get into Stanford.
But like the marathon runner he has become in recent years, Liu might have been pacing himself.
In the mere dozen years since he graduated from Yale Law School after earning a biology degree and a stint as a Rhodes Scholar, Liu has clerked for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and federal Circuit Judge David S. Tatel. He's worked in private practice for one of the country's biggest law firms, O'Melveny & Myers, and for two government offices during the Clinton administration. He earned tenure, a distinguished teaching award and promotion to associate dean at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, consulted for San Francisco Unified School District and served on the boards of Stanford, the Public Welfare Foundation, the Alliance for Education and the National Women's Law Center. He has also chaired the American Constitution Society and co-written a book on theories of constitutional interpretation.
President Obama's nomination of Liu to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals crowns a legal resume that for most lawyers would span four decades. If confirmed by the Senate, Liu, 39, would become the 28th active judge on the court and the youngest by 16 years. He would also be the only Asian American among the nation's 175 federal appellate judges.
Colleagues describe him as brilliant, indefatigable and likely to apply the law as determined by the Supreme Court even when he disagrees with it. Nevertheless, they expect a rigorous confirmation
Reporting from Berkeley, Calif. - Goodwin Liu may be poised to become the youngest judge on the nation's busiest appeals court, but he was nonetheless a late bloomer.
Born to Taiwanese immigrant parents, Liu didn't learn English until he went to school in rural Florida. His parents nudged along his math skills during summer vacations by leaving problems on the kitchen table before they left for work. He wasn't a good reader, he concedes, and had to bone up on vocabulary during all-nighters with the dictionary to get an SAT score good enough to get into Stanford.
But like the marathon runner he has become in recent years, Liu might have been pacing himself.
In the mere dozen years since he graduated from Yale Law School after earning a biology degree and a stint as a Rhodes Scholar, Liu has clerked for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and federal Circuit Judge David S. Tatel. He's worked in private practice for one of the country's biggest law firms, O'Melveny & Myers, and for two government offices during the Clinton administration. He earned tenure, a distinguished teaching award and promotion to associate dean at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, consulted for San Francisco Unified School District and served on the boards of Stanford, the Public Welfare Foundation, the Alliance for Education and the National Women's Law Center. He has also chaired the American Constitution Society and co-written a book on theories of constitutional interpretation.
President Obama's nomination of Liu to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals crowns a legal resume that for most lawyers would span four decades. If confirmed by the Senate, Liu, 39, would become the 28th active judge on the court and the youngest by 16 years. He would also be the only Asian American among the nation's 175 federal appellate judges.
Colleagues describe him as brilliant, indefatigable and likely to apply the law as determined by the Supreme Court even when he disagrees with it. Nevertheless, they expect a rigorous confirmation
