32 Facts About Goodwin Liu

Goodwin Hon Liu is an American jurist who has served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of California since 2011.

The son of Taiwanese American immigrants, Liu graduated from Stanford University and earned a master's degree from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.

On February 24,2010, President Barack Obama nominated Goodwin Liu to fill a vacancy on the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

For more than a year, Goodwin Liu's nomination was delayed amid significant opposition from Republicans in the US Senate.

Goodwin Liu was sworn into the California Supreme Court on September 1,2011.

When Goodwin Liu was three years old, the family moved to rural Clewiston, Florida, and he learned English for the first time while attending school there.

Goodwin Liu performed well academically and joined the Cub Scouts in fourth grade.

Goodwin Liu was educated at Sacramento's Rio Americano High School and became the captain of its tennis team, ultimately graduating in 1985 at age 15 as valedictorian of his high school class.

Goodwin Liu received multiple distinguished awards as an undergraduate, was elected co-president of the student body, and worked as a reporter for The Stanford Daily.

Goodwin Liu talked about societies that are far less free than ours.

Goodwin Liu was a senior program officer for higher education at the Corporation for National Service.

Goodwin Liu is a former chair of the board of directors of the American Constitution Society.

Goodwin Liu was a professor at University of California, Berkeley.

Goodwin Liu was elected to the American Law Institute in May 2008 and was elected to the ALI Council in May 2013.

Goodwin Liu currently serves as the chair of the ALI's committee on the Young Scholars Medal.

Goodwin Liu serves on the boards of the National Women's Law Center and the Alliance for Excellent Education.

Goodwin Liu took a job at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, where he became Associate Dean and Professor of Law.

In 2009 Goodwin Liu was awarded the UC Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award.

Goodwin Liu's nomination was filibustered by Republicans in the Senate and expired with the sine die adjournment of the 111th Congress.

Goodwin Liu was renominated to the same position on the first full day of the 112th Congress.

Goodwin Liu defended his writings as a scholar by saying that "there's a clear difference between what things people write as scholars and how one would approach the role of a judge".

Goodwin Liu later apologized and said that his words were "unduly harsh".

Goodwin Liu became the first Obama judicial nominee to be successfully filibustered in the Senate.

Goodwin Liu authored the majority opinion in Apple v Superior Court, where he ruled that online retailers can continue asking for credit card holder's information, such as telephone numbers and home addresses, when completing a transaction with a credit card.

In 2015, Justice Goodwin Liu joined in the California Supreme Court's unauthored opinion, In re Hong Yen Chang, which posthumously admitted Chang to the State Bar.

Justice Goodwin Liu and the rest of the California Supreme Court abrogated the court's previous decision and held that "the discriminatory exclusion of Chang from the State Bar of California was a grievous wrong" that "denied Chang equal protection of the laws".

Goodwin Liu has written in favor of affirmative action, abortion rights, and same-sex marriage and has been critical of Bush-era waterboarding policy and the death penalty.

Goodwin Liu's opinions are very well thought out and well reasoned.

In 2009, Goodwin Liu won the UC Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award.

Goodwin Liu is in a relationship with former San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim, who was once his law student.

Goodwin Liu's father, Wenpen Goodwin Liu, a medical doctor, is active in Taiwanese politics and Taiwan independence movement, and is a main organizer in the Democratic Progressive Party overseas and head of the Sacramento office of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs.

Goodwin Liu solves Rubik's cubes competitively and successfully solved a 3x3x3 cube blindfolded during a Nebraska competition organized by the WCA.