(C) Daily Montanan This story was originally published by Daily Montanan and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . University of Montana law professor, former solicitor, nominated to Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals – Daily Montanan [1] ['Keila Szpaller', 'More From Author', '- September'] Date: 2022-09-02 University of Montana law professor and constitutional scholar Anthony Johnstone has been nominated to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the White House announced Friday. The news release naming U.S. President Joe Biden’s nominees described them as “extraordinarily qualified, experienced, and devoted to the rule of law and our Constitution.” The appointment requires confirmation by the U.S. Senate. Johnstone is the Helen and David Mason Professor of Law and an affiliated Professor of Public Administration at the Alexander Blewett III School of Law at UM where he has taught since 2011. The announcement noted Johnstone served as solicitor for the State of Montana, as former assistant attorney general at the Montana Department of Justice, and as a litigation associate at Cravath, Swaine and Moore LLP in New York. He also served as a clerk for Judge Sidney R. Thomas of Montana on the Ninth Circuit from 1999 to 2000. Thomas, former chief of the Ninth Circuit, announced earlier this year that he would retire and take a “senior status” position, a semi-retirement role for judges; a supervisor for the Ninth Circuit said Friday he will do so once his replacement is confirmed. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is authorized to have 29 active judgeships and all are currently filled. A retired UM law school faculty member who worked with Johnstone praised the nomination. “I think Anthony will be great,” said Cynthia Ford, who worked as a law professor from 1990 to 2020. “He started his career clerking for one of the great Ninth Circuit judges, Sidney Thomas, and as solicitor general for Montana, he has actual courtroom experience.” She also said he was an excellent colleague, and while his confirmation would be a loss for Montana, it would be a gain for the entire Ninth Circuit and country. “He’s really proven himself as a constitutional scholar, and that’s exactly what we need on that court,” Ford said. “He’s smart. He’s intellectually curious. And he will be a really good colleague, as he was at the law school.” Ford also said that if confirmed, Johnstone would follow in the footsteps of another esteemed Montana judge who served on the Ninth Circuit, the late James Browning. Browning served as chief judge, and the courthouse in San Francisco is named after him. Judge Browning remembered his Montana roots and gave back to the law school, Ford said, and she anticipates Johnstone would as well. The Missoulian noted Johnstone is the second person from Montana in two years to be nominated to the federal Appeals Court bench. It said Lawrence Van Dyke of Bozeman was nominated to the Ninth Circuit by President Donald Trump and confirmed in January 2020. Johnstone holds a bachelor’s from Yale University and a law degree with honors from the University of Chicago Law School, according to his UM biography. “Professor Johnstone’s scholarship has been cited more than one hundred times by judges, scholars, and practitioners,” said the bio. “He has served as counsel in more than two dozen published cases in state and federal courts, including petition-stage or merit-stage briefs for six cases at the Supreme Court of the United States.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2022/09/02/university-of-montana-law-professor-former-solicitor-nominated-to-ninth-circuit-court-of-appeals/ Published and (C) by Daily Montanan Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/