Judge Sid Thomas, Recent Opinions, Part III

The last of Judge Sid Thomas' three most recent opinions, covered on this blog in the past few days, is the shortest: a one-page concurrence (see page 5788). It is also the most recent, filed less than a month ago on April 19, 2010.

Judge Sid Thomas, Recent Opinions, Part II

As noted in yesterday's post, the most recent majority opinion of Judge Sid Thomas upheld a death sentence.

In some ways, the case is unremarkable: a garden-variety habeas matter including typical claims such as ineffective assistance of counsel. However, there is one startling aspect, in that the defendant actually requested the death penalty, telling the judge that he was a violent person fascinated with killing who did not believe he could be rehabilitated. Later, the defendant changed his mind, resulting in a chain of appeals nearly thirty years long. Judge Fletcher dissented from Thomas' majority opinion, finding that ineffective assistance of counsel in the case had been prejudicial.

Judge Sid Thomas, Recent Opinions, Part I

Per the Ninth Circuit website, the three most recently published opinions authored by Judge Sid Thomas, the dark horse on Obama's short list for the Supreme Court vacancy, happen to be a majority, a concurrence, and a dissent, the latter two issued in en banc cases. The majority and short concurrence both upheld criminal sentences, one a death sentence. The dissent, profiled first below because it may have significance beyond the Supreme Court nomination, involved a blanket strip search policy instituted in the San Francisco jail system. Thomas wrote the original lead opinion.

The Other Justice Thomas?

Perhaps the least known of the individuals President Obama has interviewed for the Stevens Supreme Court vacancy is Sidney Thomas, a federal appeals court judge who sits in Billings, Montana. (Somewhere, someone is lamenting that they ruled out a clerkship in Montana. Except for a bear sighting in David Letterman's Montana kitchen, it really is a beautiful place.) While gender and religious diversity in the Court's makeup have been discussed at length in relation to Obama's pick, Judge Thomas' consideration raises another point: geographical diversity. It is, after all, the Supreme Court of the United States, and only Justices Kennedy and Breyer can claim roots west of the Mississippi (both California and Justice Breyer has spent most of his life in the East). Would a nominee from Big Sky country bring a fresh perspective?