Stephen Roy Reinhardt (born Stephen Roy Shapiro;[1] March 27, 1931 – March 29, 2018)[2] was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, with chambers in Los Angeles, California.

He was the last federal appeals court judge in active service to have been appointed to his position by President Jimmy Carter.

After two years at O'Melveny, he began working at a small firm in Los Angeles that became Fogel, Julber, Reinhardt, Rothschild & Feldman, specializing in labor law.

[5] Reinhardt served as a member of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, California Advisory Committee from 1962 to 1974 and was its vice chairman from 1969 to 1974.

He also served as member of the Democratic National Committee and as an unpaid advisor to former Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley and California governor Jerry Brown.

[5] Reinhardt was nominated by President Jimmy Carter on November 30, 1979, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, to a new seat authorized by 92 Stat.

[8] Later Reinhardt married Ramona Ripston, who was Executive Director of the ACLU of Southern California until her February 2011 retirement.

The Supreme Court stated: As for judicial practice, we are not aware of any rule or decision of the Ninth Circuit that renders judges’ votes and opinions immutable at some point in time prior to their public release.

That practice effectively allowed a deceased judge to exercise the judicial power of the United States after his death.

[13] In 2020, after Judge Reinhardt's death, a staff attorney at the Center for Death Penalty Litigation in Durham, North Carolina testified before the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet that Judge Reinhardt had sexually harassed her while she worked for him as a law clerk; her testimony described her efforts to report the harassment.

[17] His reversal rate did not affect his status as a feeder judge—between 2009 and 2013, he placed six of his clerks on the Supreme Court, tied for the tenth highest number during the same time period.

In May 2017, in the legal opinion of Magana Ortiz v. Sessions, Reinhardt admitted he could not stop a deportation, and said he had to allow it as a judge, although he would not as a citizen.