He received a Juris Doctor from the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University in 1987.

Snow started his legal career as a law clerk for Judge Stephen H. Anderson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit from 1987 to 1988.

Snow was nominated by President George W. Bush on December 11, 2007, to a seat vacated by Stephen M. McNamee.

[1] On May 24, 2013, Snow ruled that the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MCSO), and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and committed acts of racial profiling against Hispanics.

[3][4] On January 15, 2015, he announced that he would be bringing civil contempt charges against the MCSO, with a hearing to be held in April,[5] and on August 19, 2016, as one result of those proceedings, he issued an order requesting that the United States Attorney for the Arizona district prosecute Arpaio and three of his MCSO associates for criminal contempt.