Idaho Judge Nominated by President Trump to Pasadena’s Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Sworn In, “Can’t Wait to Get Started”

An Idaho judge who was sworn in to serve as a judge on the Ninth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals on Monday will hear probably hear cases in Pasadena several times a year.

Judge Ryan Nelson, of Idaho Falls, took an oath to uphold and protect the Constitution of the United States as he was sworn in to sit on the second highest court in the country on Monday.

“I can’t wait to get started and get to work,” Nelson said in my media reports.

In his role as judge, Nelson will hear hundreds of pivotal cases every year that have a large impact of law. Most of his time, judging cases will be in Pasadena, San Francisco Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon.

The federal courthouse in Pasadena is located at 125 South Grand Avenue. The U.S. Senate voted on Oct. 11 to confirm Nelson to the 9th Circuit. He was nominated by President Trump in May.

Nelson, 44, becomes the eighth Idaho judge serving on the 29-member 9th Circuit and the first circuit judge to maintain chambers in Idaho Falls. Nelson plans to hire a judicial assistant and four law clerks taken from applicants in Idaho and around the country.

Panels of the court occasionally travel to hear cases in other locations within the circuit. Although the judges travel around the circuit, the court arranges its hearings so that cases from the northern region of the circuit are heard in Seattle or Portland, cases from southern California are heard in Pasadena,

Prior to his appointment to the bench, Nelson served as general counsel of Melaleuca, Inc., based in Idaho Falls since 2009. He served previously as special counsel for U.S. Supreme Court nominations to the Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2009.

He also served as deputy general counsel to the White House Office of Management and Budget, from 2008 to 2009, and deputy assistant attorney general in the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice from 2006 to 2008.

Earlier in his career, Nelson was in private in the Washington, D.C., office of Sidley Austin LLP from 2001 to 2006. Nelson received his B.A. from Brigham Young University in 1996 and his law degree from BYU Law School in 1999.