Stanford alumnus Goodwin Liu ’91 moved one step closer to becoming a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit after the Senate Judiciary Committee approved his nomination on Thursday. The 12-7 vote was split along party lines. He will now be sent to the full Senate for consideration.

Liu, 39, is currently a professor of law at UC-Berkeley. He majored in biological sciences at Stanford before obtaining his law degree from Yale.

–Zach Zimmerman