8 Asians

Earlier this spring, UC Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu was blocked by Senate Republicans for an Obama appointment to a federal appeals court. On Wednesday, Liu was confirmed to a seat on the California Supreme Court:

The Commission on Judicial Appointments voted 3-0 to endorse Gov. Jerry Brown’s nomination of the 40-year-old Liu to succeed retired Justice Carlos Moreno as the only Democratic appointee on the seven-member court. … The son of immigrant Taiwanese physicians, Liu graduated with honors from Stanford University and Yale Law School and was a Rhodes Scholar.

Liu joined the Berkeley faculty in 2003 and became an associate dean in 2008. Many of his writings have focused on education law and policy, advocating racial and economic diversity while supporting charter schools and private school vouchers to reach those goals, positions that have won him some conservative support.

That is crazy to think that Liu is the only Democratic appointee in a state like California, but elections matter as well as timing. With Liu on the bench, that will make him the third Asian American on California’s Supreme Court, including Chief Justice Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye and Justice Ming Chin, out of a total of seven justices! As I like to say, only in California!

[Photo Courtesy of SF Gate]