Bernard Siegan

Bernard Herbert Siegan (July 28, 1924 – March 27, 2006) was a longtime law professor at the University of San Diego School of Law, libertarian legal theorist and a former federal judicial nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The New York Times called Siegan's nomination "one of the most bitterly disputed judicial nominations of the Reagan Era."

Early life and education Born in Chicago, Siegan attended Marshall High School in Chicago, and served in the United States Army during World War II. Siegan earned a J.D. degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1949.

Siegan's work has been favorably cited by legal scholars such as Richard Epstein.

Nomination to the Ninth Circuit On February 2, 1987, President Ronald Reagan nominated Siegan, who was a close friend of then-Attorney General Edwin Meese, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to fill the seat vacated by Judge Warren J. Ferguson, who had taken senior status. Almost immediately, Siegan's nomination ran into opposition from liberals and even some conservatives because of his libertarian views on economic matters, and on property rights in particular. The nomination was followed by one of the longest delays by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in addressing any judicial nomination in U.S. history up to that point. One of the loudest opponents to Siegan's nomination was Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe, whose view toward Siegan softened years later.

Siegan had confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee on November 5, 1987, and again on February 25, 1988, but his senatorial opponents were not satisfied by the answers that he gave.

Reagan later nominated Ferdinand Francis Fernandez to the seat, although he did so after the traditional start date of the Thurmond Rule in a presidential election year, and Fernandez's nomination was not acted upon by senators before the 100th Congress adjourned. President George H. W. Bush opted not to renominate Siegan to the seat either, instead renominating Ferdinand Francis Fernandez to the seat in 1989. Fernandez was confirmed that same year.

Death Siegan suffered a stroke in 2005 and died on March 27, 2006, in Encinitas, California, of complications from that stroke.

"The Rise and Fall of Economic Due Process: When the Supreme Court Championed and then Curtailed Economic Freedom" (1983, original paper, International Institute for Economic Research)

(based on his work as a consultant to the Bulgarian government on the creation of a new constitution) Property and Freedom: The Constitution, the Courts, and Land-Use Regulation (Studies in Social Philosophy and Policy) (1997)