Ronald Murray Gould (born October 17, 1946) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a U.S. circuit judge of the

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * District o ...

since 1999.

Education

Gould was born in 1946 in St. Louis,

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

. He graduated from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

. He attended the

University of Michigan Law School The University of Michigan Law School (Michigan Law) is the law school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1859, the school offers Master of Laws (LLM), Master of Comparative Law (MCL ...

, graduating in 1973 with a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice l ...

Legal career

After graduating from law school, Gould clerked for Judge

Wade H. McCree Wade Hampton McCree Jr. (July 3, 1920 – August 30, 1987) was an American attorney, judge, public official and law professor. He was the first African American appointed as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for ...

of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (in case citations, 6th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * Eastern District of Kentucky * Western District of ...

from 1973 to 1974 and for Justice

Potter Stewart Potter Stewart (January 23, 1915 – December 7, 1985) was an American lawyer and judge who served as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1958 to 1981. During his tenure, he made major contributions to, among other areas ...

of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1974 to 1975. Gould was in private practice for

Perkins Coie Perkins Coie is an American multinational law firm headquartered in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1912, it is recognized as an Am Law 50 firm. It is the largest law firm headquartered in the Pacific Northwest and has 20 offices across the Un ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

from 1975 to 1999 and served as an

adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, however the genera ...

at the

University of Washington Law School The University of Washington School of Law is the law school of the University of Washington, located on the northwest corner of the main campus in Seattle, Washington. The 2023 '' U.S. News & World Report'' law school rankings place Washingto ...

from 1986 to 1989. He was a partner at

at the time of his appeals court nomination. He also was president of the Washington State Bar Association.

Federal judicial service

Gould was nominated by

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...

for a seat vacated by Judge Robert Beezer of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * District ...

on January 26, 1999. He was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and po ...

on November 17, 1999, in a voice vote and received his commission on November 22, 1999.

Notable cases

On July 13, 2013, Gould dissented from a denial of ''

en banc In law, an en banc session (; French for "in bench"; also known as ''in banc'', ''in banco'' or ''in bank'') is a session in which a case is heard before all the judges of a court (before the entire bench) rather than by one judge or a smaller p ...

'' rehearing when the Ninth Circuit upheld a ban on

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...

's protest against shell drilling. Gould, who was joined by Pregerson, Reinhardt, Wardlaw, Fletcher, and Milan Smith, saw this as a huge violation of 1st amendment rights, writing "The panel majority's contrary conclusion will undermine the freedom of an organization to "stimulate tsaudience with spontaneous and emotional appeals for unity and action in a common cause."" On August 23, 2019, Gould was one of three judges to rule that a prisoner with

gender dysphoria Gender dysphoria (GD) is the distress a person experiences due to a mismatch between their gender identitytheir personal sense of their own genderand their sex assigned at birth. The diagnostic label gender identity disorder (GID) was used unti ...

had a right to sex reassignment surgery under the Eighth Amendment. Judge Margaret McKeown and district judge Robert Lasnik, sitting by designation, joined the opinion. The full

Ninth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * District ...

refused to rehear the case en banc, although eight judges, all Republican appointees, dissented from the denial of rehearing. On October 30, 2023, Gould revived a lawsuit over an Arizona abortion law banning abortions of fetuses with "fetal abnormalities". Although

Roe v. Wade ''Roe v. Wade'', 410 U.S. 113 (1973),. was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States conferred the right to have an abortion. The decision struck down many federal and st ...

has been overturned, the healthcare providers' lawsuit focused on both the vagueness of the law (forcing them to err on the side of not providing abortions) and economic loss from not being able to perform abortions.

Personal life

While still in private practice, Gould was diagnosed with

multiple sclerosis Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This ...

. During his time on the bench, he lost the use of his arms and legs; he now relies on a wheelchair for mobility, and with the aid of other technologies and of assistants and clerks is able to "get a good result in the work I'm doing." Gould is

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gould, Ronald M. 1946 births Living people 20th-century American judges 21st-century American judges Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States Lawyers from St. Louis People associated with Perkins Coie People with multiple sclerosis United States court of appeals judges appointed by Bill Clinton University of Michigan Law School alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni University of Washington School of Law faculty American Jews American lawyers American lawyers with disabilities