Meet The Judges Considering Trump’s Immigration Ban

This week, three judges from the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear the appeal of Hawaii’s challenge to President Donald Trump’s executive order banning visitors from six predominantly Muslim countries. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia is set to consider a similar ruling. Trump is no fan of the Ninth Circuit, the San Francisco-based appeals court that he has threatened to break up. And all three judges on the panel that will consider the appeal were appointed by Democratic president Bill Clinton. The judges are: Michael Daly Hawkins, a former Marine Corps judge and top federal prosecutor in Arizona before being appointed to the bench in 1994; Ronald Gould, who clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Judge Potter Stewart and worked at law firm Perkins Coie before being appointed in 1999; and Richard Paez, whom Clinton elevated twice—once from state judge in California to district court judge, then to the appeals court bench in 1999. This AP article provides more detail on the judges’ most prominent cases, including several decisions that went on to be upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.