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Ninth Circuit Judge Ikuta, 70, to Assume Senior Status
By a MetNews Staff Writer
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SANDRA S. IKUTA Ninth Circuit judge |
Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Sandra S. Ikuta will go on inactive service as soon as her successor is named and confirmed, the court has announced.
This will give President Donald Trump his first appointment to the Ninth Circuit during his present term. He made 10 appointments to that body during his earlier term.
The upcoming vacancy—the only one on the 29-member Ninth Circuit—was announced Monday.
Ikuta, 70, was nominated for her post by then-President George W. Bush on Feb. 8, 2006, and was confirmed by the Senate on June 19, 2006, by vote of 81–0.
A graduate of the law school at UCLA, she clerked for then-Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski (now retired) from 1988-89, then for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (now deceased) from 1989-90, became an associate, then a partner in O’Melveny & Myers, and served as general counsel for the California Resources Agency.
The jurist is a mermber of The Federalist Society, a conservative/libertarian legal organization. When she assumes senior status, there will remain on the Ninth Circuit only two active judges appointed by President George W. Bush: Consuelo M Callahan and Milan D Smith Jr. There are three active judges appointed by Bush’s predecessor, President Bill Clinton and four by President Barack Obama.
All 10 of Trump’s appointees remain on active status as do President Joseph Biden’s eight appointees.
There are currently three vacancies on district courts within the Ninth Circuit, one in California. It was created on Aug. 1, 2021 by Judge William Quinn Hayes assuming senior status.
Biden on Oct. 14, 2022, nominated San Diego Superior Court Judge Marian Gaston to the post and again nominated her on Jan. 23, 2023, but confirmation did not come.
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