Siegan Picked by Reagan for Appeals Court

University of San Diego law professor Bernard Siegan, known for his strong defense of economic freedom and for his libertarian views on property rights, was nominated Friday to a seat on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The 62-year-old constitutional scholar was named by President Reagan to serve on the 9th Circuit, the highest federal court in the West, with jurisdiction over federal appellate matters in California, eight other states, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Liberal critics of Reagan have predicted that Siegan’s long-expected nomination will be controversial, in part because of Siegan’s strongly held opinion that economic freedom deserves the same protection as freedom of speech or religion or the press.

Reached at his home in La Jolla late Friday, Siegan said he had not officially been informed of his nomination but that it did not come as a surprise. He said he was honored by the news and had not really considered whether his appointment would be contested.

“I can just say that whatever my views are, a Circuit Court judge is supposed to carry out the policies declared by the Supreme Court,” he said. “My primary obligation is to do what the Supreme Court thinks about economic liberties, not what Bernard Siegan thinks.”

Siegan added: “This is a great honor for someone who’s been in the law. This is something that I guess a lot of lawyers want to do--the capping of a career.”

Then he added, “ . . . If it happens.”

Siegan’s nomination must be approved by the Senate.

A former Chicago land-use lawyer who has taught at USD since 1973, Siegan has described himself as a strict constructionist on constitutional issues, looking to the intent of the framers of the Constitution for an understanding of constitutional questions.

He is the son of Russian-Polish immigrants, grew up on the West Side of Chicago and spoke only Yiddish until he was 5. He later attended junior college in Chicago, served in the Army and studied law at the University of Chicago.

It was there that he came under the influence of the university’s renowned free-market economists. In an interview with The Times last year, Siegan said he came to believe that looser interpretation of the Constitution was stripping citizens of their property rights and economic freedom by permitting excessive zoning and regulation.

In his 1980 book, “Economic Liberties and the Constitution,” Siegan contends that the Supreme Court has contradicted the Founding Fathers’ intent by treating economic freedom as though it deserved less protection than other freedoms such as freedom of speech.

The book advocates giving government regulation of economic rights the same scrutiny the government gives infringements of civil liberties. He contends that great American thinkers such as Alexander Hamilton considered economic freedom essential to political freedom.

If approved, Siegan would succeed Warren Ferguson. His appointment would continue the rightward movement in the giant 9th Circuit Court, once considered the most liberal of the nation’s federal appeals courts.

Siegan would become the third federal appeals judge to maintain offices in San Diego. A widower, described by friends and admirers as soft-spoken and scholarly, Siegan lives in the La Jolla house once occupied by mystery writer Raymond Chandler.

Late Friday, Siegan said his friendship with U.S. Atty. Gen. Ed Meese may have been factored into his initial consideration for the job. But he said he had been through a lengthy examination by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Justice Department and the American Bar Assn.

Siegan is a member of the national Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution. Previously, he had been appointed by Reagan to a federal housing commission.