United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is the United States' largest circuit court, with 24 judges. The court hears appeals from California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands and holds court in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and Pasadena (and occasionally Alaska and Hawaii), but its headquarters are in San Francisco.The Ninth Circuit is also by far the largest Circuit Court in the country and it has the largest number of judges, with 28 positions currently authorized for the court (one of which is currently unfilled). Because of its large size, the court rarely sits for a full en banc court of all active judges. Instead, the court provides for a "limited en banc" review of a randomly-selected 11 judge panel. This means that en banc reviews may not actually reflect the views of the majority of the court, and indeed may not include any of the three judges involved in the decision being reviewed in the first place!
The court is considered by some to be an overly liberal court, but in reality a solid majority of its judges are conservatives. While 17 judges have been appointed by Democractic presidents, 5 of them are solid conservatives. Thus only 12 judges are liberals or moderates leaving the remaining 15 as conservatives. It is often cited as "the most overturned appeals court in the United States", but this is mostly a product of its high caseload. On a percentage basis, the circuit is not overturned much more than any other.
In 2002, it made one of its most controversial decisions to date in the case of Newdow v. Elk Grove School District. The court ruled that having public schools recite a pledge including the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance violated the First Amendment ban on establishment of religion. The decision was penned for the majority by Nixon appointee Alfred T. Goodwin, one of the inactive (semi-retired) judges on the court. The Supreme Court has granted certiorari to review this case during the 2003-2004 term.
The court is also on the leading edge of federalism, recently refusing to enforce federal laws against homemade pornography (US v. McCoy), homemade firearms (US v. Stewart), and homemade marijuana (Raich v. Ashcroft). The court reasoned that application of such laws exceeded Congress's authority under the Commerce Clause, basing the decision on the Supreme Court case United States v. Lopez.
Current active judges on the court;
- Chief Judge Mary M. Schroeder
- Judge Marsha S. Berzon
- Judge Ferdinand F. Fernandez
- Judge Raymond C. Fisher
- Judge William Fletcher
- Judge Ronald M. Gould
- Judge Susan P. Graber
- Judge Michael Daly Hawkins
- Judge Andrew J. Kleinfeld
- Judge Alex Kozinski
- Judge M. Margaret McKeown
- Judge Thomas G. Nelson
- Judge Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain
- Judge Richard Paez
- Judge Harry Pregerson
- Judge Johnnie B. Rawlinson
- Judge Stephen Reinhardt
- Judge Pamela Ann Rymer
- Judge Barry G. Silverman
- Judge Richard C. Tallman
- Judge A. Wallace Tashima
- Judge Sidney R. Thomas
- Judge Stephen S. Trott
- Judge Kim M. Wardlaw
