Fletcher received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University in 1968 and another from Merton College, Oxford, in 1970 as a Rhodes Scholar.
[4] Fletcher was nominated twice by former President Bill Clinton, his Rhodes Scholar classmate at Oxford, for a seat on the Ninth Circuit in April 1995, and on January 7, 1997 vacated by William Albert Norris.
Fletcher reported in an interview that "[p]robably the most important thing, beyond the obvious need for legal education of judges, is the development of a culture of decision making.
2021), decided on September 15, 2021, Fletcher ruled that the speech of Tarek ("Tony") and Adam Kazal, which included hiring protestors, organizing leafletting, hiring a van to drive around Los Angeles with a message on its side, and publishing emails to make the public aware of Thunder Studios' business practices is protected by the 1st amendment even though the Kazals were not in the United States at "all relevant times".
[14] In 2016, Fletcher wrote the majority opinion in Peruta v. San Diego County, ruling that the Second Amendment did not protect the right to carry a concealed weapon.
Six other judges also dissented and agreed or mostly agreed with Fletcher's reasoning: Alex Kozinski, Sidney R. Thomas, Susan P. Graber, Raymond C. Fisher, Marsha Berzon, and Kim McLane Wardlaw[19] On December 29, 2015, Fletcher blocked a death sentence due to it being in violation of Roper v. Simmons, and argued that Roper applied retroactively.
Fletcher was joined by Sidney R. Thomas, Kim McLane Wardlaw, Marsha Berzon, Morgan Christen, and Jacqueline Nguyen, over a dissent by Carlos Bea who argued that Roper did not apply retroactively.
The ruling prevented private loggers from removing large fire-damaged trees from up to 200 feet from either side of the road in Mendocino National Forest, which would have burned an estimated 288,000 acres.
His ruling declared the permit "arbitrary and capricious" because the EPA had no way of monitoring such discharges, thus making the regulation impossible to enforce.
[25] On July 31, 2023, Fletcher (joined by Gould) ruled that it is within the EPA's powers to require San Francisco to update its long-term control plan for sewer overflow.
[27] [28] [29] On April 14, 2006, Fletcher dissented in Jespersen v. Harrah's Operating Co. when the Ninth Circuit en banc ruled that a casino can require female workers to wear makeup.
However, on March 4, Fletcher and Paez narrowed the ruling to California and Arizona, letting the Supreme Court decide the rest.
6, 2020), Fletcher wrote the Court's opinion, ruling that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rule that "categorically denies asylum to aliens arriving at our border with Mexico unless they have first applied for, and have been denied, asylum in Mexico or another country through which they have traveled" exceeds the power that Congress gave federal agencies.
[36][37] On January 16, 2025, Fletcher ruled that the GEO Group violated Washington's Minimum Wage Act when it paid employeed civil detainees between $1 and $5 per day.
Fletcher's ruling found that the GEO Group's contract with ICE requires that it pay minimum wage to detained employees.
[38] On September 24, 2002, Fletcher authored the plurality opinion in a 7-4 ruling that held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protects gay workers from sexual harassment.
"[43] On November 20, 2020, Fletcher ruled that a Bivens claim can be used to collect damages against Border Patrol officers for Fourth Amendment violations.
Armando Nieves-Martinez, "the patriarch of a Mexican family with a prosperous grape-growing business in Sonora, Mexico", made a false confession about having drugs when the Border Patrol threatened to imprison his wife and children.
Because Mendez failed to follow the mandatory protocol of the drug test kit, the discretionary function exception is not available as a defense.
[50] On January 27, 2020, Fletcher wrote for the majority (in a 7-4 decision) that Arizona's policy of not counting ballots filed in the wrong precinct is unconstitutional under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Fletcher used a map (see page 17 of his opinion) to show why voters of Native American and Hispanic descent were far more likely to file a ballot at the wrong precinct, whether intentional (for convenience) or not.
[52] On July 1, 2021, about a year and a half later, the Supreme Court reversed the 9th circuit's position and upheld the Arizona law in a 6–3 decision along ideological lines.
Citing the Supreme Court's order in Andino v. Middleton, Fletcher found that a two-day grace period was reasonable, and so Arizona's voter registration deadline became October 15.
[54] On August 28, 2019, Fletcher reversed a district court order allowing the government to seize funds from a pre-trial detainee's trust account to be applied to an outstanding restitution payment, ruling that they could not.