By Patricia Soung, Shimica Gaskins, and Cyn Yamashiro
Soon, Governor Gavin Newsom will appoint California’s next Attorney General. We hope the Governor will select a leader with a proven track record of fighting for California youth and their families.
The best person for the job is CA Supreme Court Justice Goodwin Liu. His formidable intellect, deep policy experience and commitment to equal justice makes him the ideal person to lead the CA Department of Justice. If appointed, he would make history as the first-ever CA Attorney General of Taiwanese or East Asian descent.
The Attorney General plays a vital role in safeguarding the rights of our children and families—including tackling racial discrimination in schools; protecting victims of child abuse; and protecting the rights and well-being of youth in the criminal justice and immigration systems. We know this firsthand because we are juvenile justice advocates who believe California’s children deserve to thrive, regardless of their race, income, immigration status, or zip code.
Justice Liu is perfectly suited to succeed a long line of eminent attorneys and jurists who have served the Justice Department with honor and excellence. As a distinguished jurist on California’s highest court for the past decade, Justice Liu has been a champion for the constitutional rights and the well-being of children. His judicial opinions strive to ensure that our justice system does not exploit children, but rather promotes their welfare and potential.
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In 2015, Justice Liu wrote a dissent in a case involving a ten-year-old boy convicted of killing his abusive father. At trial, the prosecution relied entirely on the child’s confession to police, taken without a parent or attorney present. Justice Liu questioned whether a 10-year-old child could “voluntarily, knowingly and intelligently” give up his right against self-incrimination, and alongside advocates, he called on lawmakers to strengthen protections for youth against interrogations. Within two years, state lawmakers passed a law prohibiting police interrogations of children under 16 without an attorney.
Widely admired across California’s AAPI community, Justice Liu has also been an ardent voice for racial justice for California’s children and families.
In December 2020, Justice Liu spoke out in a dissenting opinion in a case involving a 13-year-old Black child who was physically seized by police officers. The officers grabbed her arms as she walked in her own neighborhood, and in response, she flailed her legs, kicking an officer in the stomach. She was arrested and charged with assaulting and resisting law enforcement.
In his dissent, Justice Liu underscored both the child’s diminished culpability based on her age and “the social reality that interactions between police and Black youth are often fraught with distrust and risk of violence… When the two deputies grabbed J.E.’s arms, she may well have thought that the deputies were trying to harm her.”
Justice Liu recently wrote another opinion denouncing the “school-to-prison pipeline” that pushes students out of school and increases rates of incarceration especially for Black, Latino, and indigenous children. He emphasized the Legislature must do better to address the needs and circumstances of children’s homes and communities through services, rather than relying on an ill-suited and dysfunctional criminal justice system. Six months later, lawmakers passed a bill making family services the default to reduce truancy and misbehavior, and limiting juvenile court intervention in such cases.
Justice Liu’s leadership on the California Supreme Court is an extension of his lifelong commitment to children’s well-being. The son of Taiwanese immigrants, Justice Liu attended Sacramento public schools. His parents instilled in him a passion for the power of education, which drove him to help launch AmeriCorps, a national program that creates jobs for young people. He also worked on K-12 education policy in the U.S. Department of Education and, after clerking for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, joined the UC Berkeley faculty as an constitutional law and education policy expert.
As a scholar and advocate, Justice Liu gained renown for a bold vision anchored in the fundamental belief that high-quality education is a basic right, not a privilege. In 2008, he published a groundbreaking article that revolutionized the way that California funds public education. As a result, California now directs billions more in funds to improve educational opportunities in schools with the most low-income and immigrant children. Millions of California’s students—including AAPI and other students of color—now benefit each year from Justice Liu’s visionary approach to funding schools based on student need
California’s children and families deserve an Attorney General with the mettle and mind to make California better for all who call our state home. Who will work to dismantle structures responsible for injustice and open the door to greater opportunities for all Californians. With Justice Liu as California’s Attorney General, we can build a fairer, safer, and more equitable California for all youth and families.
Patricia Soung is the former Interim Executive Director and Youth Justice Policy Director at the Children’s Defense Fund-California, Executive Board Member of the Pacific Juvenile Defender Center, and a juvenile defense attorney. Cyn Yamashiro is the Director of the Los Angeles County Independent Juvenile Defender Program, Founding Director of the Center for Juvenile Law and Policy at Loyola Law School, and a former Los Angeles County Public Defender. Shimica Gaskins is a child advocate. The opinions expressed in this article are individual to the authors.
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