From 1973 to 2004,Robart was in private practice in Seattle with the law firm of Lane Powell Moss &Miller (later Lane Powell Spears Lubersky LLP and then Lane Powell PC).[2][3] He specialized in civil litigation.[2] He was the chair of the firm's Litigation Department from 1992 to 1998,[2] and was managing partner at the firm in 2003 and 2004.[3] As an attorney,Robart tried numerous cases,including high-profile litigation related to Washington's Initiative 695,[3] in which he successfully represented the cities of Bainbridge Island,Bremerton and Lakewood in both the trial court and the Washington Supreme Court.[2] He did pro bono work with Evergreen Legal Services,and independently represented Southeast Asian refugees.[3] He is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.[2]
Robart has been president of the Seattle Children's Home and former trustee of the Children's Home Society of Washington.[6]
Robart has been a trustee of his alma mater Whitman College,and was chair of the college's Board of Overseers.[2]
Robart presided over a case in which a street performer (busker) raised a constitutional challenge to Seattle Center rules regulating performers' conduct. In 2005,Robart held that some of the regulations,such as those requiring performers to wear badges and barring them from performing within 30 feet of people waiting in line,were a prior restraint and violated performers' constitutional right to freedom of speech.[10] On appeal,a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit initially reversed in a 2-1 decision,holding that the regulations were valid.[10] After a rehearing en banc,[11] the Ninth Circuit upheld Robart's ruling,concluding that the challenged rules did not "qualify as reasonable time,place,or manner restrictions" under the current record.[12]
In 2005,in the case of ASF Inc. v. City of Seattle,Robart struck down the City of Seattle's effective ban on strip clubs,finding that the city's 17-year moratorium on granting adult entertainment licenses constituted an unconstitutional prior restraint.[13][14]
In 2011,Robart dismissed a lawsuit brought by phone book companies against the City of Seattle. The companies challenged the city's law that created a "yellow book" opt-out registry,allowing residents to cancel deliveries of phone books. Robart found that the ordinance was a permissible restraint on commercial speech.[15][16] On appeal,however,the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit,disagreed and reversed.[17]
Robart was assigned to Microsoft v. United States,a case brought in 2016 by Microsoft Corp. (with support by other tech companies,including Apple,Google,and Amazon) against the U.S. Department of Justice,challenging the provision of the federal Stored Communications Act that bars companies from alerting customers to secret government surveillance of their emails. In February 2017,Robart denied the government's motion to dismiss,finding that Microsoft had made a plausible First Amendment argument that these "gag orders" were akin to "permanent injunctions preventing speech from taking place before it occurs" and therefore failed strict scrutiny. Robart wrote:"The public debate has intensified as people increasingly store their information in the cloud and on devices with significant storage capacity. Government surveillance aided by service providers creates unique considerations because of the vast amount of data service providers have about their customers."[22]
On February 3,2017,Robart granted a temporary restraining order against President Donald Trump's executive order on travel and immigration,[23][24] pending review of a lawsuit brought by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson.[25] Trump responded via Twitter,calling the opinion "ridiculous" and disparaging Robart as a "so-called judge".[6][4][26] These comments prompted criticism from some members of Congress and commentators who claimed it endangered the independence of the judiciary.[27] On February 9,a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit unanimously upheld Robart's order and rejected the federal government's request for an emergency stay pending appeal.[28][29]
On July 24,2020,Robart granted a restraining order on behalf of the justice department overruling a Seattle city ban on the use of teargas and impact munitions.[citation needed]
Diane Schwerm Sykes is an American jurist and lawyer who serves as the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She served as a justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court from 1999 to 2004.
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Christopher Fitzgerald Droney is an American lawyer who formerly served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and judge of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut.
Thomas Beall Griffith is an American lawyer and jurist who served as a U.S. circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 2005 to 2020. Currently,he is a lecturer on law at Harvard Law School,a fellow at the Wheatley Institute at Brigham Young University (BYU),and special counsel in the Washington,D.C. office of the law firm of Hunton Andrews Kurth. He is also a member of the Federalist Society.
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Peter Jo Messitte was an American lawyer and jurist who served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland from October 1993 until his death in January 2025.
Amul Roger Thapar is an American attorney and jurist serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He previously served as a U.S. district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky from 2008 to 2017 and as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky from 2006 to 2008. Thapar was President Donald Trump's first Court of Appeals appointment and Trump's second judicial appointment after Justice Neil Gorsuch. Thapar was discussed as a candidate for the Supreme Court of the United States.
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State of Washington and State of Minnesota v. Trump,847 F.3d 1151,was a lawsuit that challenged the constitutionality of Executive Order 13769,issued by U.S. president Donald Trump.
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Patrick Joseph Bumatay is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as a U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
In United States law,a nationwide injunction is injunctive relief in which a court binds the federal government even in its relations with nonparties. In their prototypical form,nationwide injunctions are used to restrict the federal government from enforcing a statute or regulation.
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