Richard Randall “Rick” Clifton (born November 13, 1950) is a

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

United States circuit judge In the United States, federal judges are judges who serve on courts established under Article Three of the U.S. Constitution. They include the chief justice and the associate justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, the circuit judges of the U.S. Cou ...

of the

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

Education and legal training

Clifton received an

Artium Baccalaureus Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

and a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by ''U ...

. After law school, he clerked for Ninth Circuit Judge Herbert Choy.

Professional career

Following his clerkship, he was in private practice in

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

until his appointment to the federal bench. He also taught for several years at the

William S. Richardson School of Law The William S. Richardson School of Law is the professional graduate law school of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Located in Honolulu, Hawaii, the school is named after its patriarch, former Hawaii State Supreme Court Chief Justice William S. ...

at the University of Hawaii as an adjunct professor.

Federal judicial service

He was nominated to the

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

on September 4, 2001 to fill a seat vacated by Cynthia Holcomb Hall. The

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

confirmed him on July 30, 2002 by a 98–0 vote. He was Bush's first appointment to the Ninth Circuit. He received his commission on July 30, 2002. He assumed

senior status Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the Federal judiciary of the United States, federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of servi ...

on December 31, 2016.

Notable cases

In 2006, he was one of the judges on the panel that upheld the imprisonment of journalist Josh Wolf. On February 7, 2017, Judge Clifton along with fellow Ninth Circuit judges

William Canby William Cameron Canby Jr. (born May 22, 1931) is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, sitting in Phoenix, Arizona. As both a professor at Arizona State University College of Law and ...

and

Michelle Friedland Michelle Taryn Friedland (born July 4, 1972) is a United States federal judge, United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Biography Early life and education Friedland was born in Berkeley, Californi ...

heard oral arguments on a motion from the

Trump administration Donald Trump's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 45th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Donald Trump, his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican Party ...

to stay the temporary restraining order in State of Washington v. Trump, part of the ongoing court cases related to Executive Order 13769. A live audio feed of the telephonic argument was broadcast nationwide. On February 9, the three judges denied the request for a stay of the temporary restraining order. In July 2018, Clifton dissented when the court found that Hawaii's licensing requirement to openly carry firearms violated the

Second Amendment to the United States Constitution The Second Amendment (Amendment II) to the United States Constitution protects the Right to keep and bear arms in the United States, right to keep and bear arms. It was ratified on December 15, 1791, along with nine other articles of the Un ...

. On July 3, 2019, in a follow-up ruling to the February 2017 ruling, Clifton and

Michelle T. Friedland Michelle Taryn Friedland (born July 4, 1972) is a United States federal judge, United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Biography Early life and education Friedland was born in Berkeley, Californi ...

upheld a district court's halting of parts of Donald Trump's wall.

N. Randy Smith Norman Randy Smith (born August 11, 1949) is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He lives and maintains chambers in Pocatello, Idaho. Background A native of southeastern Idaho, Smith ...

issued a dissent, and on July 26, the Supreme Court overturned Friedland and Clifton by a 5-3 vote on ideological lines with

Stephen Breyer Stephen Gerald Breyer ( ; born August 15, 1938) is a retired American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1994 until his retirement in 2022. He was nominated by President Bill Clinton, and repl ...

saying he would temporarily block the construction of the wall but allow funding to be set aside for it. On November 29, 2019, Clifton temporarily halted the execution of Barry Lee Jones, who was convicted of one count of sexual assault, 3 counts of child abuse, and a felony murder.http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2019/11/29/18-99006.pdf

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Clifton, Richard Randall 1950 births 21st-century American judges Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Living people People from Framingham, Massachusetts United States court of appeals judges appointed by George W. Bush New Trier High School alumni William S. Richardson School of Law faculty 20th-century American lawyers