Goodwin’s ascension to his state’s highest court will end an 18 month saga that began when President Obama nominated him to a federal appellate judgeship on the basis of his widespread support throughout the legal community — including numerous leading conservatives. Clinton inquisitor Ken Starr called Goodwin an “extraordinarily qualified nominee” who will serve as a judge “with great distinction.” Torture memo author John Yoo called Goodwin a “very well qualified” nominee who will be a “good judge on the bench.”

But Goodwin is also very young. And brilliant. And a former Supreme Court clerk. Senate Republicans soon envisioned a future where the Judge Liu of 2010 became the Justice Liu of 2014, and they began combing through Goodwin’s prolific scholarship searching for nuggets that could be taken out of context to discredit the nominee. Suddenly, Goodwin’s article disagreeing with a prominent liberal’s recipe for judicially-created welfare rights became proof that Goodwin actually supported a judicial takeover of welfare. An op-ed making the utterly banal point that a conservative interest group used the terms “free enterprise,”‘ “private ownership of property,” and “limited government” as code words for an ideological agenda became proof that he wants to turn America into “Communist-run China.”