William C. Canby, Jr.

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William Cameron Canby, Jr. (born in 1931 in St. Paul, MN) is a federal appeals judge who has served on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals since 1980.

[edit] Education and Legal Training

Canby earned his B.A. from Yale University in 1953 and his law degree from the University of Minnesota in 1956. He clerked for Associate Justice Charles E. Whittaker of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1958 to 1959.

[edit] Professional Career

Canby was a Lieutenant in the JAG Corps of the U.S. Air Force from 1956 to 1958. He was in private practice in St. Paul from 1959 to 1962 before joining the Peace Corps. He was an Associate Director of the Peace Corps for Ethiopia from 1962 to 1963 and then Deputy Director for Ethiopia from 1963 to 1964. He was then Director for Uganda from 1964 to 1966. He was a special assistant to U.S. Senator Walter Mondale in 1966 before leaving government service.

He was a special assistant to President Harris Wofford of the State University of New York at Old Westbury in 1967 and then a professor of law at Arizona State University from 1967 to 1980 and during that time was Director of the Office of Indian Law at the Arizona State University College of Law. From 1970 to 1971 he was a visiting Fulbright professor of law at Makerere University in Kempala, Uganda.

[edit] Federal Judicial Service

Canby was nominated by Jimmy Carter on April 2, 1980, to a seat vacated by Ozell Miller Trask. He was confirmed by the Senate on May 21, 1980, and received commission on May 23, 1980. Canby assumed senior status on May 23, 1996.