Marsha Berzon

Marsha Lee Berzon (née Siegel; born April 17, 1945) is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Berzon graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Radcliffe College of Harvard University in 1966 and received a Juris Doctor from U.C. Berkeley School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley in 1973. While at law school, Berzon was a contributor to the California Law Review. She then clerked for Judge James R. Browning of the Ninth Circuit from 1973 to 1974. Berzon then clerked for Justice William J. Brennan Jr. of the United States Supreme Court. She was Brennan's first female law clerk.

Berzon was in private practice in Washington, D.C. from 1975 to 1977 and then moved to San Francisco, California where she practiced from 1978 to 2000. Berzon had a unique Supreme Court litigation practice and litigated many of the landmark cases during that period, including UAW v. Johnson Controls, 499 U.S. 187 (1991). Berzon was also a lecturer at UC Berkeley in 1992 and a practitioner-in-residence at Cornell Law School in 1994.

On January 27, 1998, Berzon was nominated by Bill Clinton to the Ninth Circuit for the seat vacated when John T. Noonan assumed senior status on December 27, 1996. Clinton renominated Berzon on January 26, 1999. Berzon was confirmed by the U.S. Senate by a 64–34 vote on March 9, 2000. She received her commission on March 16, 2000. On April 6, 2021, she announced her intent to assume senior status upon confirmation of a successor. She assumed senior status on January 23, 2022.

On February 10, 2003, Berzon dissented from denial of en banc after a panel rejected a Washington State Patrol cadet's claim that he was forced to resign due to lack of religious accommodations.

In the disability rights case Molski v. Evergreen Dynasty Corp. (9th Cir. 2008), Berzon warned that the majority's decision could be detrimental to the enforcement of civil rights laws.

In a 2009 decision, Berzon wrote that while a San Francisco resolution condemning the Vatican was in line with current Establishment Clause jurisprudence, she was troubled by how close the resolution came to the establishment of an anti-Catholic stance.

Also in 2009, Berzon dissented in Abebe v. Holder, an immigration case by a lawful permanent resident seeking protection for deportation. Berzon, joined by several other liberal judges, argued that allowing the deportation of Abebe violates equal protection.