Richard Paez

Richard Paez
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Incumbent
Assumed office March 14, 2000
Appointed by	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Cecil F. Poole
Judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California
In office June 16, 1994 – March 17, 2000
Appointed by	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Seat established by 104 Stat. 5089
Succeeded by	S. James Otero
Personal details
Born	Richard Anthony Paez (1947-05-05) May 5, 1947 (age 74)[1] Salt Lake City, Utah
Political party	Democratic
Education	Brigham Young University (BA) University of California, Berkeley (JD)

Richard Anthony Paez (born May 5, 1947) is a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Early life and education[]

Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, Paez received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Brigham Young University in 1969. He attended the UC Berkeley School of Law and graduated with a Juris Doctor in 1972.

Career[]

Paez began his career as a staff attorney for California Rural Legal Assistance, from 1972 to 1974, then as a staff attorney for the , from 1974 to 1976. He joined the in 1976 as Senior Counsel, was Director of Litigation from 1978 to 1979 and Deputy Director for Litigation, from 1979 to 1980, then was Acting Executive Director and Director of Llitigation, from 1980 to 1981. Paez then became a Judge of the from 1981 to 1994.

Federal judicial service[]

Following his March 9, 1994, nomination by President Bill Clinton, confirmation by the United States Senate on June 15, 1994, and reception of commission on June 16, 1994, Paez became the second Mexican American to sit on the bench of the United States District Court for the Central District of California, a district that covers Los Angeles.^[2]

Paez was confirmed by Senate on March 9, 2000, by a 59-39 vote, more than four years after President Clinton first nominated him to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Paez waited 1,506 days to be confirmed, which at that time was the longest wait for a vote by any judicial nominee in U.S. history. The campaign against Paez's confirmation was led by Senators Robert C. Smith of New Hampshire and Jeff Sessions of Alabama over assertions that Paez and other 9th Circuit judges were too liberal. Then Vice President Al Gore interrupted his campaign to fly back to Washington to preside over the confirmation vote.^[3]

Notable cases[]

On August 6, 2004, Paez ruled that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's internet broadcasting of pretrial detainees violated the 14th Amendment. He wrote: "We fail to see how turning pretrial detainees into the unwilling objects of the latest reality show serves any... legitimate goals... Inmates are not like animals in a zoo to be filmed and photographed at will..."^[4]

Paez authored the ruling in Bolt v. United States, which was filed on December 3, 2007. In April 1999, Carol Bolt had fallen on snow and ice in the parking lot of an Army apartment complex and broken her ankle. Paez ruled that the Army could not use the "discretionary function exception" as a defense because it failed to clear the parking area in one of its apartment complexes despite specifying a duty to do so "once a year, before the end of March".^[5]

In a 2009 decision, he held that a San Francisco resolution urging the Vatican to withdraw a directive against gay adoptions does not violate the Establishment Clause.^[6]

In a 2011 decision, he wrote the majority opinion upholding a lower court's blocking of the most controversial parts of the Arizona SB 1070 anti-illegal immigration law from taking effect.^[7]

On May 3, 2019, Paez concurred in a 9th Circuit en banc decision holding that an immigration judge erred by failing to inform a 14-year old immigrant that he might be eligible for a form of relief from removal, temporarily halting his deportation to Honduras. However, Paez went further than the majority. Paez would have ruled that the 5th Amendment's Due Process Clause guarantees the right to appointed counsel for minors in most removal proceedings, an issue the majority declined to reach. Paez's concurrence was joined by Judges Marsha Berzon and William A. Fletcher. ^[8]

On February 24, 2020, Paez strongly dissented when the 9th Circuit upheld Trump's "Global Gag Rule" by a vote of 7 to 4. Paez's dissent was joined by Chief Judge Thomas, Judges Wardlaw and Fletcher. Paez also claimed that the majority was kowtowing towards the Trump administration, and he called the decision "paternalistic" and partisan. ^[9][10]

Personal life[]

See also[]

• List of Hispanic/Latino American jurists

References[]

Sources[]

• Richard Paez at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.