Milan Smith

Milan Smith
Judge of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Incumbent
Assumed office May 18, 2006
Nominated by	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Wallace Tashima
Personal details
Born	1942 (age 68–69) Pendleton, Oregon, U.S.
Alma mater	Brigham Young University, Utah University of Chicago

Milan Dale Smith, Jr. (born 1942) is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, based in El Segundo, California.

Smith's brother, Gordon Smith, was a Republican U.S. Senator from Oregon from 1996-2009.

Background

Smith was born in Pendleton, Oregon. He was the son of Milan D. Smith, Sr., who would serve on the staff of Secretary of Agriculture, Ezra Taft Benson. He received a B.A. from Brigham Young University in 1966.

Smith earned a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1969. Before becoming a judge, he was the managing partner at the law firm of Smith, Crane, Robinson, and Parker, which he co-founded in 1972. He was a President-General cousel of the Los Angeles State Building Authority from 1983 to 2006. Smith was a Vice Chairman of the California Fair Employment and Housing Commission from 1987 to 1991.

Ninth Circuit nomination and confirmation

Smith was nominated by President George W. Bush on February 14, 2006 to fill a seat vacated by Judge A. Wallace Tashima.^[1] He was confirmed just over three months later by the United States Senate on May 16, 2006 by a vote of 93-0.^[2] He is the fifth judge appointed to the Ninth Circuit by Bush, and the first since Carlos Bea was confirmed in 2003.

Decisions

Smith's first published opinion was released on December 14, 2006. In that case, United States v. Juvenile Male,^[3] Smith wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel that reversed the district court for improperly sentencing a juvenile under an adult sentencing scheme.

In July 2007 in Lands Council v. McNair, Smith wrote a concurrence described as "unusually blunt and wide-ranging", in which he blamed his own court for "taking the law too far and causing much of 'the decimation of the logging industry in the Pacific Northwest' and the loss of legions of timber jobs."^[4] Judge Smith's view ultimately prevailed in July 2008 when the case was reviewed en banc and he wrote the opinion for the unanimous eleven-judge panel which vacated the panel decision.

In September 2008 Smith was the one dissenter on a three judge panel that held that a school ban of an instrumental version of "Ave Maria" did not violate students' freedom of speech and religion.^[5]

Regarding the Stolen Valor Act of 2005, signed into law by President George W. Bush on December 20, 2006, USA v. Xavier Alvarez, case No. 08-50345 in the 9th U.S. Court of Appeals. This case was decided on August 17, 2010 when the panel also ruled the Stolen Valor Act unconstitutional. The federal appeals court panel in California says people have a right to lie about receiving military medals. Specifically, in the 2 - 1 decision, the majority said there's no evidence that such lies harm anybody, and there's no compelling reason for the government to ban such lies. "The right to speak and write whatever one chooses - including, to some degree, worthless, offensive and demonstrable untruths - without cowering in fear of a powerful government is, in our view, an essential component of the protection afforded by the First Amendment," Judge Milan Smith said in the majority opinion. If lying about a medal can be classified as a crime, Smith said, so can lying about one's age, misrepresenting one's financial status on Facebook, or telling one's mother falsehoods about drinking, smoking or sex. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_Valor_Act_of_2005)

See also

• Udall family
• Lee-Hamblin family

References

1. ^ Nominations Sent to the Senate
2. ^ U.S. Senate: Legislation & Records Home > Votes > Roll Call Vote
3. ^ http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/ca9/newopinions.nsf/B05E4E4364F513C28825724300812963/$file/0630270.pdf?openelement
4. ^ Milstein, Michael (2007-07-25). "Timber fight pits judge v. judges". The Oregonian. 
5. ^ San Francisco chronicle article on ruling

External links

• Milan Smith at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• U.S. Department of Justice Profile
• Fotouhi, David, "From Worst to First?: Judge Smith Describes Improving the Ninth Circuit," Harvard Law Record, April 24, 2008.
• "Senate approves Smith's brother for federal appeals court," The Associated Press, May 17, 2006
• "White House Looks at Two Names for Ninth Circuit," The Recorder, November 9, 2005

Legal offices
Preceded by Wallace Tashima	Judge of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit 2006–present	Incumbent

Persondata
Name	Smith, Milan
Alternative names	Smith, Milan Dale Jr.
Short description	American federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Date of birth	1942
Place of birth	Pendleton, Oregon
Date of death
Place of death