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Marsha Berzon

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Marsha Berzon
United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit
Tenure
2022 - Present
Years in position
4
Prior offices:
United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit
Years in office: 2000 - 2022
Education
Bachelor's
Radcliffe College, 1966
Law
University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law, 1973
Personal
Birthplace
Cincinnati, OH

Marsha Siegel Berzon is afederal judge onsenior status with theUnited States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. She joined the court in 2000 after being nominated by PresidentBill Clinton (D). She assumed senior status on January 12, 2022.[1][2]

Early life and education

A native ofCincinnati, Ohio, Berzon graduated from Radcliffe College with her B.A. in 1966, and from the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law with herJ.D. in 1973.[1]

Professional career

Judicial career

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Nomination Tracker
Fedbadgesmall.png
Nominee Information
Name: Marsha L. Berzon
Court:United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit
Progress
Confirmed 772 days after nomination.
ApprovedANominated: January 27, 1998
ApprovedAABA Rating:Substantial Majority Well Qualified, Minority Qualified
Questionnaire:
ApprovedAHearing: July 30, 1998
June 16. 1999
QFRs:(Hover over QFRs to read more)
ApprovedAReported: July 1, 1999 
ApprovedAConfirmed: March 9, 2000
ApprovedAVote: 64-34
DefeatedAReturned: October 21, 1998

Berzon was first nominated to theUnited States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit by PresidentBill Clinton on January 27, 1998, to a seat vacated byJohn Noonan. TheAmerican Bar Association rated BerzonSubstantial Majority Well Qualified, Minority Qualified for the nomination.[3] Hearings on Berzon's nomination were held before theUnited States Senate Committee on the Judiciary on July 30, 1998. Under Rule XXXI, paragraph 6 of the standing rules of the Senate, Berzon's nomination was returned to the president on October 21, 1998. President Clinton resubmitted the nomination on January 26, 1999. Hearings were held before theSenate Judiciary Committee on June 16, 1999, and her nomination was reported by U.S. Sen.Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) on July 1, 1999. Berzon was confirmed on a recorded 64-34 vote of theU.S. Senate on March 9, 2000, and she received her commission on March 16, 2000.[1][4][5]

Noteworthy cases

Judge finds NCIS search illegal (2014)

NCIS employee Steve Logan conducted online surveillance from his desk of computers in the state of Washington. While working, Logan identified a private citizen's computer containing images of child pornography. Logan turned this information over to Seattle police. In turn, the police furthered the investigation and eventually arrested and charged Michael Dreyer with possession of child pornography. Dreyer was convicted based, at least partly, on the evidence NCIS uncovered and was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Dreyer appealed, claiming his motion to suppress the NCIS evidence, as well as evidence gathered based on that search, should have been granted rather than denied. A three-judge panel of theNinth Circuit agreed with Dreyer.

JudgeMarsha Berzon wrote for the majority. In response to Logan's argument that he was only able to identify the suspect’s whereabouts within a 30-mile radius of the IP address he identified and that he wrote in a search warrant that the large Department of Defense saturation in the area indicated a likelihood that the suspect was in the military, Berzon wrote, "To accept that position would mean that NCIS agents could, for example, routinely stop suspected drunk drivers in downtown Seattle on the off-chance that a driver is a member of the military, and then turn over all information collected about civilians to the Seattle Police Department for prosecution." The lone dissenter, JudgeDiarmuid O'Scannlain, said that to apply the exclusionary rule in cases like this should be the last resort; societal costs must be considered before excluding evidence. He was particularly scathing when writing how the majority decision benefited Dreyer, who obviously possessed illegal child pornography in his home.

Articles:

Court upholds striking of Planned Parenthood defunding law (2013)

See also:United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit (PLANNED PARENTHOOD ARIZONA INC. v. TOM BETLACH, 12-17558)

Judge Berzon was the opinion-writing judge on a three-judge panel, that includedJay Bybee andConsuelo B. Marshall, that affirmed a ruling by U.S. District JudgeNeil Wake. Wake ruled that an Arizona law, that defunded Planned Parenthood, was in violation of the Medicaid Act. In her opinion Judge Berzon wrote,

The Arizona law violates this requirement by precluding Medicaid patients from using medical providers concededly qualified to perform family planning services to patients in Arizona generally, solely on the basis that those providers separately perform privately funded, legal abortions.[6][7]

See also

External links

Footnotes

Political offices
Preceded by
-
United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit
2000-2022
Succeeded by
-
US-CourtOfAppeals-9thCircuit-Seal.svg
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Federal judges who have served theU.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Active judges

Chief JudgeMary Murguia  •  Mark Bennett (Hawaii)  •  Kim McLane Wardlaw  •  Morgan Christen  •  Ronald Gould  •  Johnnie Rawlinson  •  Consuelo Maria Callahan  •  Milan Smith  •  Jacqueline Nguyen  •  Lucy H. Koh  •  Sal Mendoza, Jr.  •  John B. Owens  •  Michelle T. Friedland  •  Lawrence VanDyke  •  Bridget S. Bade  •  Danielle Forrest  •  Ryan Nelson (Idaho)  •  Eric Miller (Washington)  •  Patrick Bumatay  •  Daniel Collins (California)  •  Kenneth Kiyul Lee  •  Ana de Alba  •  Gabriel Sanchez (California)  •  Holly Thomas  •  Daniel Bress  •  Jennifer Sung  •  Roopali Desai  •  Anthony Johnstone  •  Eric Tung

Senior judges

Mary Schroeder  •  Andrew Hurwitz  •  Diarmuid O'Scannlain  •  Andrew Kleinfeld  •  Sidney Thomas  •  Barry Silverman  •  Susan Graber  •  Margaret McKeown (California)  •  William Fletcher (California)  •  Richard Paez  •  Marsha Berzon  •  Richard Tallman  •  Richard Clifton  •  Jay Bybee  •  Carlos Bea  •  Sandra Ikuta  •  Randy Smith (Federal appeals judge)  •  John Clifford Wallace  •  Dorothy Wright Nelson  •  William Canby  •  Stephen Trott  •  Ferdinand Francis Fernandez  •  Michael D. Hawkins  •  Atsushi Wallace Tashima  •  

Former judgesAnthony Kennedy  •  Lorenzo Sawyer  •  Joseph McKenna (Supreme Court)  •  William Ball Gilbert  •  Erskine Mayo Ross  •  William Henry Hunt (U.S. 9th Circuit Court)  •  Wallace McCamant  •  Frank Sigel Dietrich  •  William Henry Sawtelle  •  Francis Arthur Garrecht  •  William Denman  •  Clifton Mathews  •  Bert Emory Haney  •  William Healy  •  Homer Bone  •  William Edwin Orr  •  Walter Pope  •  Dal Lemmon  •  Richard Harvey Chambers  •  Stanley Nelson Barnes  •  Oliver Hamlin  •  Gilbert Jertberg  •  Charles Merton Merrill  •  Montgomery Koelsch  •  Benjamin Duniway  •  Walter Raleigh Ely, Jr.  •  James Marshall Carter  •  Shirley Hufstedler  •  Eugene Allen Wright  •  John Francis Kilkenny  •  Ozell Trask  •  Herbert Choy  •  J. Blaine Anderson  •  Thomas Tang  •  Cecil Poole  •  William Albert Norris  •  Charles Edward Wiggins  •  Frederick Hamley  •  Alex Kozinski  •  Matthew Hall McAllister  •  William Morrow  •  Frank Rudkin  •  Harry Pregerson  •  Stephen Reinhardt  •  Pamela Rymer  •  Raymond Fisher  •  James R. Browning  •  Alfred Goodwin  •  Joseph Sneed  •  Procter Hug  •  Betty Binns Fletcher  •  Otto Skopil  •  Joseph Farris  •  Arthur Alarcon  •  Warren Ferguson  •  Robert Boochever  •  Cynthia Holcomb Hall  •  Robert Beezer  •  Melvin Brunetti  •  Edward Leavy  •  David R. Thompson (Federal judge)  •  Thomas G. Nelson (Federal judge)  •  Curtis Dwight Wilbur  •  Albert Lee Stephens, Sr.  •  Albert Lee Stephens, Jr.  •  William Orr (9th Circuit)  •  John Kilkenny  •  Paul Watford  •  
Former Chief judges

William Denman  •  Walter Pope  •  Richard Harvey Chambers  •  Mary Schroeder  •  Sidney Thomas  •  James R. Browning  •  Alfred Goodwin  •  John Clifford Wallace  •  Procter Hug  •  Albert Lee Stephens, Sr.  •  


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