Goodwin Liu is a liberal UC Berkeley law professor that President Obama has nominated to the already ultra-liberal 9th Circuit.
Republicans have threatened a filibuster which will likely scuttle Liu's chances for confirmation.
Reporting the story, Los Angeles Times reporter James Oliphant noted that:
As of late Wednesday, it appeared increasingly unlikely that Democrats would be able to corral those votes, meaning Liu's nomination — in limbo for more than a year — could effectively be scuttled. Asian American interest groups, in particular, were fighting for Liu's confirmation.
But who are these groups and what, if any, political slant do they take? Oliphant doesn't tell us, but at least one of them is decidedly liberal, the Asian-American Justice Center.
The AAJC's list of recent friend-of-the-court briefs shows a strong tilt to the left on issues such as Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the Arizona immigration law as well as affirmative action.
Indeed, the AAJC hoped to convince the Supreme Court to uphold New Haven, Connecticut's decision to keep white firefighters from a deserved promotion despite having passed their exams in the 2009 Ricci v. DeStefano case :
The Asian American Justice Center filed an amicus curiae with the Supreme Court of the United States in support respondent DeStefano. In Ricci the Court will address the issue whether municipalities may decline to certify results of an exam that would make disproportionately more white applicants eligible for promotion than minority applicants, due to fears that certifying the results would lead to charges of racial discrimination. The AAJC brief argues that Asian Americans are woefully underrepresented in firefighting and other protective service positions, in part due to a history of exclusion from public sector positions, and that Asian Americans benefit when local governments utilize promotion and advancement methodologies that do not have a disparate impact on minorities.
