Joseph Jerome Farris

Joseph Jerome Farris (March 4, 1930 – July 23, 2020) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Education and career Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Farris received a Bachelor of Science degree from Morehouse College in 1951. July 1951 to February 1951, he was a civil servant radar instructor at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi. March 1952 to February 1953, he served in the United States Army Signal Corps at Camp Gordon, Georgia and Fort Monmouth, New Jersey and was discharged as a private first class. He received a Master of Social Work from Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University) in 1955 and a Juris Doctor with Order of the Coif honors from the University of Washington School of Law in 1958. He was in private practice in Seattle, Washington from 1958 to 1969 with various partners, including Leonard W. Schroeter. Farris served as one of the initial judges on the Washington Court of Appeals, Division One, in Seattle from 1969 to 1979. Federal judicial service On July 12, 1979, President Jimmy Carter nominated Farris to a new seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit created by 92 Stat. 1629. The United States Senate confirmed the nomination on September 26, 1979, and Farris received his commission on September 27, 1979. He assumed senior status on March 4, 1995, and M. Margaret McKeown was named to replace him.