Warren J. Ferguson
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Warren John Ferguson (October 31, 1920 – June 25, 2008) was an American
jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...
who served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.


Education and career

Ferguson was born in Eureka, Nevada and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Nevada, Reno in 1942. He served in the United States Army during World War II. Upon return, he earned his
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
USC Gould School of Law The USC Gould School of Law, located in Los Angeles, California, is the law school of the University of Southern California. The oldest law school in the Southwestern United States, USC Law traces its beginnings to 1896 and became affiliated with ...
in 1949. He was in private practice in Fullerton, California from 1949 to 1959. In 1959 he was appointed judge of the Anaheim-Fullerton Municipal Court where he served until 1961. He was a Superior Court judge in Santa Ana, California from 1961 to 1966.


Federal judicial service

Ferguson was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 26, 1966, to the United States District Court for the Central District of California, to a new seat authorized by 80 Stat. 75. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 20, 1966, and received his commission on November 3, 1966. His service terminated on December 20, 1979, due to elevation to the Ninth Circuit. Ferguson was nominated by President Jimmy Carter on September 28, 1979, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, to a new seat authorized by 92 Stat. 1629. He was confirmed by the Senate on November 26, 1979, and received his commission on November 27, 1979. He assumed senior status on July 31, 1986. His service terminated on June 25, 2008, due to his death at his home in Fullerton, California.Weber, Bruce (July 12, 2008)
Warren J. Ferguson, 87, Federal Judge, Is Dead.
'' New York Times''


Notable cases

Notable cases include a 1971 decision after
Spencer Haywood Spencer Haywood (born April 22, 1949) is an American former professional basketball player and Olympic gold medalist. Haywood is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, being inducted in 2015. High school career In 1964, Haywo ...
was denied a transfer from the
American Basketball Association The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a major men's professional basketball league from 1967 to 1976. The ABA ceased to exist with the ABA–NBA merger, American Basketball Association–National Basketball Association merger in 1976, ...
's Denver Rockets to National Basketball Association's Seattle SuperSonics. The NBA at the time prohibited college graduates to play for four years after graduation; the ABA did not. The
antitrust Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust l ...
suit went to the Supreme Court (
Haywood v. National Basketball Association ''Haywood v. National Basketball Association'', 401 U.S. 1204 (1971), was a U.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled against the NBA's requirement that a player could not be drafted by an NBA team until four years after graduating from high school. ...
), which affirmed the decision. His ruling in '' Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc.'' in 1979 ushered in the era of home video recording by allowing Sony to market the
Betamax Betamax (also known as Beta, as in its logo) is a consumer-level analog recording and cassette format of magnetic tape for video, commonly known as a video cassette recorder. It was developed by Sony and was released in Japan on May 10, 1975, ...
.


See also

*
List of United States federal judges by longevity of service This is a list of Article III United States federal judges by longevity of service. The judges on the lists below were presidential appointees who have been confirmed by the Senate, and who served on the federal bench for over 40 years. It includ ...


References


External links


Court of Appeals Mourns Passing of Senior Circuit Judge Warren J. Ferguson
via Ninth Circuit * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ferguson, Warren John 1920 births 2008 deaths American jurists People from Eureka, Nevada Judges of the United States District Court for the Central District of California United States district court judges appointed by Lyndon B. Johnson Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit United States court of appeals judges appointed by Jimmy Carter 20th-century American judges USC Gould School of Law alumni University of Nevada, Reno alumni Superior court judges in the United States United States Army personnel of World War II