N. Randy Smith

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Norman Randy Smith (born August 11, 1949) is an American jurist who serves as a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He has continued to live and maintain chambers in Pocatello, Idaho.

[edit] Education and career

A native of Logan, Utah, Smith attended Brigham Young University, where he received his B.S. degree in 1974 and his J.D. in 1977. He moved to Idaho that year and, during 1977–81, served as Associate/Assistant General Counsel for the J.R. Simplott Company, while also teaching law at Boise State University in 1979–81. In 1982 he joined the law firm Merrill & Merrill, where he remained for thirteen years, first as an associate, becoming partner in 1984, the year he also began a long second career as an adjunct professor at Idaho State University. He left private practice in 1995 to become a trial judge for the Sixth Judicial District of Idaho, a position he held until his confirmation to the Ninth Circuit.

[edit] Ninth Circuit nominations and confirmation

Smith was nominated by President George W. Bush to two different vacancies on the Ninth Circuit before eventually being confirmed. The first nomination, on December 16, 2005 was to fill the vacancy left by Judge Stephen S. Trott. However, after opposition from California senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, who argued that Smith, an Idahoan, had been nominated to a "California seat", his nomination stalled in the 109th Congress.

Following the Democratic Party takeover of the U.S. Senate in the aftermath of the November 2006 elections, and the withdrawal of fellow Ninth Circuit nominee William Gerry Myers III, President Bush resubmitted Smith's name to the 110th Congress on January 16, 2007. The new nomination was to the seat left open by Idaho judge Thomas G. Nelson, resulting in Smith's confirmation on February 15, 2007 by a vote of 94-0, over a year after his original nomination.

Smith is the seventh judge appointed by President Bush to the Ninth Circuit, and the first Article III judge confirmed by the Senate of the 110th Congress.

His first published opinion for the Ninth Circuit was Pilkington v. Cardinal Health, Inc. (released February 19, 2008), which dealt with class action settlement agreements.