Legal News

Senior 9th Circuit judge and civil rights advocate Warren Ferguson dies at 87

By Jason Siegel

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal judge Warren Ferguson died on Wednesday of heart failure, The Recorder reported. He was 87.

Ferguson was born in Nevada and moved to Los Angeles in 1946. He settled in Fullerton, went into private practice and then became Buena Park's first city attorney. He was also city attorney for Placentia, Baldwin Park, Santa Fe Springs, La Puente, Rosemead and Walnut.

Ferguson also was taught at Loyola Law School and psychiatry (law) at USC's medical school.

He was appointed to the Central District federal court in 1966 and elevated 13 years later to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeal.

He presided over many noteworthy cases according to a press release by the appellate court. Ferguson ruled in USA v. Smith that warrantless electronic surveillance of a defendant accused of unlawful possession of firearms was unconstitutional even though the Attorney General authorized it as in the interest of national security.

He also ruled that video recorder manufacturers weren't contributorily liable for copyright infringements when people used them to recorder content on their televisions in the 1979 trial, Universal City Studios v. Sony Corp.

His son, Peter, also told The Recorder that his father got a late-night phone call from federal district court Judge John Sirica, asking for advice as he presided over the criminal cases of the Watergate burglars.

A private memorial service in being planned at Fort Rosecrans in San Diego.

Obituary in The Recorder
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals obituary

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on June 27, 2008 (boomark / email).