Who appointed Mary Helen Murguia?

President Barack Obama appointed Mary Helen Murguia to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2011.

Was Mary Helen Murguia appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Mary Helen Murguia was appointed by President Barack Obama, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Mary Helen Murguia's confirmation vote?

The Senate confirmed Mary Helen Murguia 89–0 on December 22, 2010.

Ninth Circuit / Appointed 2011 / Active

Mary Helen Murguia

Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Appointed by President Barack Obama in 2011 and confirmed by the Senate 89–0, Mary Helen Murguia is a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She earned a law degree from University of Kansas School of Law in 1985. She previously served on the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. Opinions & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1960 · age 66
Appointed by: Barack Obama, 2011
Confirmed: 89–0
Education: University of Kansas 1982 · University of Kansas Law 1985
Succeeded: Michael Daly Hawkins

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
2000	District of Arizona	Clinton (D)	Voice vote
2011	Ninth Circuit succeeded Michael Daly Hawkins	Obama (D)	89–0

Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own. A voice vote means the chamber approved aloud. No senator-by-senator tally is recorded.

Confirmation vote

The senator-by-senator roll call for this vote hasn’t been ingested yet.

Education

University of Kansas	B.A., B.S.	1982
University of Kansas School of Law	J.D.	1985

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Murguia was assigned 1,879 district-court cases (1990–2010). Median time from filing to termination: 231 days across 1,879 closed cases.

Prisoner & habeas36%

Civil rights16%

Contract14%

Other federal statutes9%

Intellectual property6%

Personal-injury torts5%

Other14%

Case assignment is from CourtListener’s PACER-derived docket records: a partial sample, not a complete caseload, reflecting the judge last assigned each case. How we count.

On appeal

Of 121 of Murguia’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 97 were affirmed, 13 reversed or vacated, and 11 affirmed in part and reversed in part. This is a historical count of appellate outcomes for cases we could match, not a judgment of the judge, and not a complete record. How we count.

In our data, Murguia authored 38 published opinions for the court (2001–2011). Most cited: Colson v. Avnet, Inc. (56 citations).

Published, precedential opinions from the CourtListener corpus. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.

Selected opinions

Year	Case	Citation	Cited
2010	Colson v. Avnet, Inc.	687 F. Supp. 2d 914	56
2008	Date v. Schriro	619 F. Supp. 2d 736	21
2010	R & L Ltd. Investments, Inc. v. Cabot Investment Properties, LLC	729 F. Supp. 2d 1110	13
2009	Western Watersheds Project v. Bureau of Land Management	629 F. Supp. 2d 951	13
2009	Thompson v. Paul	657 F. Supp. 2d 1113	12
2009	Marceau v. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 1269	618 F. Supp. 2d 1127	12
2009	Quinones v. Potter	661 F. Supp. 2d 1105	9
2008	Bard Peripheral Vascular, Inc. v. W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc.	586 F. Supp. 2d 1083	9
2006	Schwartz v. Metropolitan Life Insurance	463 F. Supp. 2d 971	9
2009	Ortega Melendres v. Arpaio	598 F. Supp. 2d 1025	7
2008	Black Star Farms, LLC v. Oliver	544 F. Supp. 2d 913	7
2010	Castle v. Eurofresh, Inc.	734 F. Supp. 2d 938	6
2009	Marlyn Nutraceuticals, Inc. v. Improvita Health Products	663 F. Supp. 2d 841	6
2009	Dialog4 System Engineering GmbH v. Circuit Research Labs, Inc.	622 F. Supp. 2d 814	6
2002	Mann v. New York Life Insurance & Annuity Corp.	222 F. Supp. 2d 1151	6

Showing the 15 most-cited of 38 authored opinions in our data. “Cited” is inbound citations across the CourtListener corpus. Case links open the ruling’s full text (CourtListener) or its page here; read the methodology and verify against the primary source.

Questions & answers

Who appointed Mary Helen Murguia?: President Barack Obama appointed Mary Helen Murguia to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2011.
Was Mary Helen Murguia appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Mary Helen Murguia was appointed by President Barack Obama, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Mary Helen Murguia's confirmation vote?: The Senate confirmed Mary Helen Murguia 89–0 on December 22, 2010.
Which court is Mary Helen Murguia on?: Mary Helen Murguia is a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Sources

Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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15 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).