United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Federal appellate court for the western U.S.

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
(9th Cir.)
Location
Appealsfrom
Established
Judges
CircuitJustice
ChiefJudge
www.ca9.uscourts.gov

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals headquartered in San Francisco, California, and has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts for the following federal judicial districts:

• District of Alaska
• [District of Arizona](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_St

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History

Ninth Circuit Court House in 1905

Year	Jurisdiction	Total population	Pop. as% of nat'l pop.	Number of active judgeships
1891	California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington	2,087,000	3.3%	2
1900	Territory of Hawaii added	2,798,000	3.7%	3
1912	Arizona added	7,415,000[a]	6.7%	3
1940		11,881,000[a]	9.0%	7
1960	Alaska and Guam added	22,607,000	12.6%	9
1980	Northern Mariana Islands added	37,170,000	16.4%	23
2000		54,575,000	19.3%	28
2007		60,400,000	19.9%	28
2009		61,403,307	19.72%	29
2010		61,742,858	19.99%	29
2020		66,848,869	20.17%	29

The Ninth Circuit's large size is due to the dramatic increases in both the population of the western states and the court's geographic jurisdiction that have occurred since the U.S. Congress created the Ninth Circuit in 1891.[2] The court was originally granted appellate jurisdiction over federal district courts in California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. As new states and territories were added to the federal judicial hierarchy in the twentieth century, many of those in the West were placed in the Ninth Circuit: the newly acquired Territory of Hawaii in 1900, Arizona upon its admission to the Union in 1912, the Territory of Alaska in 1948, Guam in 1951, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in 1977.

The Ninth Circuit also had jurisdiction over certain American interests in China, in that it had jurisdiction over appeals from the United States Court for China during the existence of that court from 1906 through 1943.[3][a]

However, the Philippines was never under the Ninth Circuit's jurisdiction. Congress never created a federal district court in the Philippines from which the Ninth Circuit could hear appeals.[4] Instead, appeals from the Supreme Court of the Philippines were taken directly to the Supreme Court of the United States.[5]

In 1979, the Ninth Circuit became the first federal judicial circuit to set up a Bankruptcy Appellate Panel as authorized by the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978.

The Richard H. Chambers U.S. Court of Appeals, Pasadena, California

The cultural and political jurisdiction of the Ninth Circuit is just as varied as the land within its geographical borders. In a dissenting opinion in a rights of publicity case involving the Wheel of Fortune star Vanna White, Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski sardonically noted that "[f]or

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Current composition of the court

As of December7,2025[update]:

#	Title	Judge	Duty station	Born	Term of service	Appointed by
Active	Chief	Senior
94	Chief Judge	Mary H. Murguia	Phoenix, AZ	1960	2011–present	2021–present
79	Circuit Judge	Kim McLane Wardlaw	Pasadena, CA	1954	1998–present	—
82	Circuit Judge	Ronald M. Gould	Seattle, WA	1946	1999–present	—
86	Circuit Judge	Johnnie B. Rawlinson	Las Vegas, NV	1952	2000–present	—
89	Circuit Judge	Consuelo Callahan	Sacramento, CA	1950	2003–present	—
91	Circuit Judge	Milan Smith	El Segundo, CA	1942	2006–present	—
95	Circuit Judge	Morgan Christen	Anchorage, AK	1961	2012–present	—
96	Circuit Judge	Jacqueline Nguyen	Pasadena, CA	1965	2012–present	—
99	Circuit Judge	John B. Owens	San Diego, CA	1971	2014–present	—
100	Circuit Judge	Michelle Friedland	San Jose, CA	1972	2014–present	—
101	Circuit Judge	Mark J. Bennett	Honolulu, HI	1953	2018–present	—
102	Circuit Judge	Ryan D. Nelson	Idaho Falls, ID	1973	2018–present	—
103	Circuit Judge	Eric D. Miller	Seattle, WA	1975	2019–present	—
104	Circuit Judge	Bridget S. Bade	Phoenix, AZ	1965	2019–present	—
105	Circuit Judge	Daniel P. Collins	Pasadena, CA	1963	2019–present	—
106	Circuit Ju

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