Ninth Circuit to Make Judicial History with First Panel of Hispanic Judges

SAN FRANCISCO – The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will make judicial history next week when an appellate panel consisting of three judges of Hispanic descent hears oral arguments in Seattle. It will be the first all-Hispanic panel to sit in any of the nation’s federal courts of appeal since they were established in 1891.

Circuit Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw and Senior Circuit Judges Arthur Alárcon and Ferdinand Fernandez comprise the panel, which will consider appeals of decisions reached in the federal trial courts of Washington and Idaho. The proceeding will be held July 11, beginning at 9:30 a.m. on the 21 st floor of the Park Place Building, 1200 Sixth Ave., Seattle.

Judges Wardlaw and Alárcon have parents who were born in Mexico, while Judge Fernandez’ father was born in Spain and his mother was of Spanish descent. They are among six Hispanic judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the most of any circuit court in the country.

“When you think of the immigration this country has had from all quarters and our melting pot history, I would have thought this would have happened more than once by now,â€