Despite GOP protests, Dems to move forward on Liu nomination

A senior Senate Republican wants to postpone a Friday hearing on a controversial judicial nominee, but Democrats have rejected the request.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the ranking member on the
Judiciary Committee, called for another delay of the hearing to
consider the nomination of Goodwin Liu to the 9th Circuit U.S.
Court of Appeals.

{mosads}Sessions said Liu, a University of California at Berkeley law
professor, had failed to disclose nine more items consisting mainly of
speeches and presentations on his original Senate questionnaire. Republicans, Sessions said, are seeking more time to look over the new material so they would be
fully prepared to question Liu. The panel received the new items
Wednesday night.

“We just feel this is rushing a little bit,” Sessions told reporters
Thursday afternoon, “particularly because this is such a significant
nomination.”

A spokeswoman for Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said the
hearing would proceed as scheduled, noting that it had already been
postponed twice at the behest of Republicans.

Sessions did not rule out a possible filibuster of Liu’s nomination on
the floor, saying only that he had not decided yet whether Liu’s
omissions and background created met the “extraordinary circumstance”
standard that warranted blocking consideration of his nomination on
the Senate floor.

Even before Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens announced his
retirement, conservatives and liberals alike were viewing Liu’s
confirmation as a test case for President Barack Obama’s judicial
nominations. A graduate of Stanford University and Yale Law School,
Liu clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, worked in the Clinton
administration and has become an outspoken advocate of liberal causes,
including same-sex marriage and affirmative action.

Last week, all seven Republican members of the Judiciary Committee
asked for a delay in Liu’s hearing in the light of the earlier
discovery of 117 omitted items from Liu’s questionnaire. Liu’s failure
to respond fully had jeopardized his nomination, they said in a letter
sent Tuesday to Leahy.

Leahy said none of the new information Liu provided is controversial
enough to “disqualify him from serious consideration” especially
because it mainly consisted of “event announcements and descriptions,
agendas from third-party organizations and publicly available news
articles.”

“We want to look through all of these writings and speeches,”
Sessions explained. “He’s just 39 — he’s never practiced law or
tried a case. All we have to research are these speeches and
interviews he’s given.”

The latest information Liu provided the committee Wednesday night
included an article in Berkeley law school’s publication, media
interviews, appearances and comments at symposiums, clubs and forums.
The material included a July 23, 2007 radio interview on the Supreme
Court’s decision in a Seattle schools case in which Liu was critical
of Chief Justice John Roberts’ position. In another 2006 radio interview,
Liu was asked about his stance on partial-birth abortion and President Barack Obama’s
“empathy standard” for federal judges.

Sessions attributed the “sloppy” report to how quickly his
hearing had been scheduled after Obama nominated him, just 16 days
after his nomination while the average time from the nomination to
hearing for President George W. Bush’s circuit nominees was 179 days.

The Alabama Republican also questioned the timing of the hearing on a Friday when the
Senate is not expected to be voting and many senators will not be in the upper chamber.