limited government

President Obama has nominated law professor Goodwin Liu, a left-wing extremist, to the nation’s largest federal appeals court, the Ninth Circuit.  Liu is hostile to “‘free enterprise, private ownership of property, and limited government.’ According to Liu, these are ‘code words for an ideological agenda hostile to environmental, workplace, and consumer protections.’”  Liu opposed the appointment of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who was easily confirmed by the Senate in a bipartisan vote of 78-to-22, on the grounds that Roberts supported these “basic precepts of American liberty and economic freedom.”

Liu has been suggested by left-wing “civil-rights” groups as a possible Supreme Court nominee.

Liu also believes in “a constitutional right to welfare“  (perhaps echoing Obama, who has expressed regret that the Supreme Court “didn’t break free” from legal constraints in order to bring about “redistribution of wealth”).  Liu is also a big user of politically-correct psychobabble, writing that a judge is supposed to be a “culturally situated interpreter of social meaning” rather than an impartial umpire who interprets the law in accord with its plain meaning or its framers’ intent.

Bar association standards say lawyers are supposed to have practiced law for at least 12 years before being nominated to a judgeship, and also must have “substantial courtroom and trial experience.“  Liu has no trial experience, and has not even been out of law school for 12 years, meaning he is by definition unqualified under ABA standards.  But a liberal ABA committee, showing ideological bias, rubberstamped his nomination anyway, ignoring his lack of the required qualifications, since its members share his extreme political views.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration is doling out favors to politicians that violate federal influence-peddling statutes.  (Earlier, the Administration fired an inspector general, Gerald Walpin, who uncovered wrongdoing by an Obama crony.)