ISU adjunct faculty member Judge Randy Smith one of three judges to hear Proposition 8 case before U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals

Idaho State University faculty member Randy Smith will be one of three judges during the upcoming hearing before the U.S. 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals about Proposition 8 on Dec. 6 in San Francisco.

Smith is an adjunct faculty member of the ISU College of Business and the ISU College of Arts and Letters, and has been since 1993. He joined the 9^th Circuit court in 2007 after being nominated by President George W. Bush.

The hearing on Dec. 6 has resulted from Perry v. Schwarzenegger case in August when U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that Proposition 8 violates equal protection rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

The other two 9th Circuit judges who will sit in panel with Smith are Stephen Reinhardt, a 1980 nominee of President Jimmy Carter, and Michael Hawkins, nominated in 1994 by President Bill Clinton.

Smith, 61, earned his bachelor’s and law degrees from Brigham Young University. He served as chairman of the Idaho Republican Party in the 1990s and began his career on the bench in 1995 as a trial court judge. He had previously served in the Idaho Sixth Judicial District as district judge and felony drug court judge. He was 2005 recipient of ISU’s Statesman of the Year award.

According to the 9^th Circuits website, www.ca9.uscourts.gov, oral arguments in Perry v. Schwarzenegger will be heard Monday, Dec. 6, beginning at 9 a.m. MST. For more information on the case, visit the link on that website under the “Announcement” heading.

The panel has given consent for live broadcast of the proceeding, which is scheduled to air on C-SPAN, beginning at 9 a.m.