12 Facts About Ryan Bounds

Ryan Wesley Bounds was born on 1973 and is an American attorney serving as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Oregon.

Bounds had been a nominee for a position as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, but his controversial nomination narrowly lost bipartisan support for confirmation in the Senate when it was revealed that, as an undergraduate, Bounds wrote columns criticizing outrage over vandalism of a gay pride statue.

Early in his career, Ryan Bounds served as a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1999 to 2000.

On September 7,2017, President Donald Trump nominated Ryan Bounds to serve as a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, to the seat vacated by Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain, who assumed senior status on December 31,2016.

One week after Ryan Bounds was nominated, both of Oregon's US Senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, announced they would not return the blue slips for Ryan Bounds, saying they had not been adequately consulted on the nomination.

The White House Counsel's Office said that it had contacted both senators on several occasions before nominating Ryan Bounds, but received very little feedback from either senator.

In February 2018, the bipartisan commission cited by Wyden and Merkley found Ryan Bounds to be one of four suitable applicants for the judgeship.

However, the Senators continued to refuse to turn in their blue slips, citing college newspaper articles Ryan Bounds wrote while a student at Stanford University in the early 1990s.

Ryan Bounds said he was instructed to provide only material dating back to law school to the selection committee by a staffer of Senator Ron Wyden, who had helped to convene the commission.

Ryan Bounds did provide those writings to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.

Wyden said he did not believe in the sincerity of Ryan Bounds' apology, feeling it was intended only to secure his confirmation.

Ryan Bounds has been a member of the Federalist Society since approximately 2000.