William A. Fletcher

William A. Fletcher (born June 6, 1945) is a United States federal appeals court judge who has sat on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals since 1998.^[1]

Education and legal training

Fletcher went to Roosevelt High School in Seattle, Washington, graduating in 1964. Fletcher received a B.A. from Harvard University in 1968 and another from Merton College, Oxford University in 1970 as a Rhodes Scholar. He earned his law degree from Yale Law School in 1975.^[2] He then clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Stanley A. Weigel from 1975 to 1976. Fletcher then clerked for Associate Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1976 to 1977.

Fletcher's mother, Betty Binns Fletcher, was also a judge on the Ninth Circuit, although she held senior status from 1998 until her death in 2012.

Fletcher teaches Federal Courts at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Boalt Hall).^[2]

Professional career

Fletcher was a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy from 1970 to 1972 and a Professor of Law at Boalt Hall School of Law, UC Berkeley from 1977 to 1998. Fletcher was the author of the Ninth Circuit's decision in Demers v. Austin (January 2014).

Federal judicial service

Fletcher was nominated twice by former President Bill Clinton, his Rhodes Scholar classmate at Oxford, for a seat on the Ninth Circuit vacated by William Albert Norris in April 1995, and on January 7, 1997.^[3] His first appointment was never voted on by the Senate, but his second nomination was confirmed in a 57-41 vote on October 8, 1998 and he received his commission on October 9.^[3]

See also

• List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States

References

External links

• William A. Fletcher at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.