A Judge Known for Pushing the Envelope (9th Circuit's Reinhardt)

New York Times ^ | 6/30/02 | ADAM LIPTAK

[kattracks]

he leading intellectual force on the liberal wing of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is widely said to be Judge Stephen Reinhardt, who was appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1980 and lives in Los Angeles.

"Reinhardt is the combination of two things," said Eugene Volokh, a law professor at the University of California in Los Angeles. "He is one of the most liberal judges on the court, and one of the judges who is most likely to push the envelope."

Judge Reinhardt, 71, concurred in the Pledge of Allegiance decision. As the senior active judge on the panel, he was entitled to write it but assigned it instead to Alfred T. Goodwin, a senior, or semi-retired, judge appointed by President Richard M. Nixon.

In an interview, Judge Reinhardt declined to talk about the decision. "Judge Goodwin is a typical Oregon Republican and a typical individualistic Westerner," he said.

Judge Reinhardt, a graduate of the Yale Law School, is famous in legal circles for his losing Supreme Court record. He was, wrote Akhil Amar, a law professor at Yale, "reversed by the Supreme Court unanimously an unbelievable five times in a single term."

He is as outspoken as he is liberal. He repeatedly criticized President Bill Clinton for not placing more liberals and members of minorities on the courts to counteract what he called the more ideological appointments by President Ronald Reagan.

He said he was unapologetic about his reversals in the Supreme Court. "They have the right to take away rights if they want," he said. "A lot of the times that we have been reversed we have been applying the law as it is, and they're reversing it, which they're allowed to do."

[kattracks]

A whiner and a LOSER!

[holyscroller]

a senile old fool!

[JCG]

He said he was unapologetic about his reversals in the Supreme Court. "They have the right to take away rights if they want," he said. "A lot of the times that we have been reversed we have been applying the law as it is, and they're reversing it, which they're allowed to do."

Kinda full of himself, isn't he?

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[wardaddy]

yes a typical whiner loser liberal who thinks he or she is single handedly saving the world....smugly of course.

[aristeides]

No mention in this article of something I read the other day, that Reinhardt's wife is the head of the ACLU in California.

[Henchster]

Can the House impeach a sitting judge solely for lousy decisions?

[PatrioticAmerican]

"pushing the envelope"?? The man is off the reservation!

[freekitty]

I wonder if this Judge as so many others has ever considered that their decisions simply may not be what the people want and is not good for the country? Nah.....That would be the right thing to do.

[Uncle Hal]

This judge is the ultimate liberal and a darling of the left. The NY Times, LA Times, and SF Chronicle have all had articles praising him. I noted their articles against the ruling were weak hearted at best. The judge is or was married to Ramona Ripson,who at one time headed the ACLU in LA.