9th Circuit judges hold court at ASU in Phoenix
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held court at Arizona State University in downtown Phoenix on Friday to hear oral arguments in four cases it is considering.
The cases involved a Scottsdale resident suing the city over freedom of speech, the trespass of Tucson police officers, an inmate at the Florence Correctional Complex, and the murder conviction of a Nevada inmate.
Hundreds of students from ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law sat in the audience of the W.P. Carey Foundation Armstrong Great Hall to listen to the oral arguments in the cases.
Students were given the morning off of classes to listen to arguments, according to first-year law student Kyra Bronson.
“I thought it was amazing,” Bronson said. “I must have learned enough so far because when they referred to procedural topics, I understood it, so that’s encouraging.”
The court, based in San Francisco, travels twice a year to Hawaii and Alaska for cases, but had not heard a case in Phoenix since 2014, according to court deputy Bradley Ybarreta.
The cases
Judges Michael Hawkins, Milan Smith and Andrew Hurwitz presided over the oral proceedings for the first three cases of the day. Hawkins is a Phoenix resident.
The cases were:
United States of America v. Jonathan Lee Read.
Richard Brubaker and Barbara Stapleton v. City of Tucson.
Save Our Preserve Political Action Committee of Scottsdale v. City of Scottsdale.
Judge McKeown replaced Judge Hawkins for the fourth case of the day, which involved the murder conviction and death sentence of a Nevada inmate, Billy Ray Riley v. Timothy Filson, et al. “There’s an adrenaline rush when a judge start asking difficult questions
and you see the lawyer try to keep the facts in mind,” said Jacob Zweiback, a first-year law student who attended the hearing.
Zweiback, who hopes to go into sports law, says the experience was invaluable and humanized the process of debating in a courtroom.
“It was a comforting thing,” Zweiback said of watching the interactions. “These are very human people, and it’s not like you have to be Tom Cruise in ‘A Few Good Men.’ ”
Students weigh in
The judges then took questions from students, who asked about the oral arguments and writing legal briefs.
“Everyone attended and everyone got that experience,” Zweiback said. “We just had a circuit court case in our building. That’s big for our school.”
One student asked when the decisions and opinions by the judges on the cases would be made available.
“Anytime between now and when you graduate law school,” Hurwitz replied.
Ybarreta said the decisions should be handed down within the next few months.