Succeeded by B. Lynn Winmill Name Harold Ryan | Role Attorney Unit USS Merrick Preceded by Ray McNichols | |
Full Name Harold Lyman Ryan Resting place Morris Hill CemeteryBoise, Idaho Education | ||
Service/branch United States Navy | ||
Harold Lyman Ryan (June 17, 1923 - April 10, 1995) was an attorney and federal judge in Idaho.
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Education and career history
Born and raised in Weiser, Idaho, Ryan graduated from Weiser High School in 1941, and attended the University of Idaho in Moscow from 1941 to 1943, then enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He attended the University of Washington in Seattle under the V-12 Navy College Training Program, completed midshipmen's school at the University of Notre Dame, and graduated with a commission as an ensign in 1944. Ryan served the remainder of World War II in the Pacific Theater aboard the U.S.S. Merrick.
Ryan returned to the University of Idaho in 1946 and entered its College of Law, graduating in January 1950. He was admitted to the Idaho State Bar in 1950, and returned to Weiser to practice law with his father, Frank D. Ryan. Ryan served as a deputy prosecutor of Washington County from 1951 to 1952, and was elected to the state senate in 1962 and served from 1963 to 1966. While in the Senate, Ryan took a particular interest in modernizing the Idaho judiciary and served as Chairman of the Joint Commission of the Idaho Legislature which instituted sweeping reform by reorganizing and modernizing the state judicial system, creating a court administration, and forming the Idaho Judicial Council. He also served as president of the Idaho state bar from 1967 to 1969.
After serving as campaign director for U.S. Senator Jim McClure in 1978, McClure recommended Ryan to President Ronald Reagan in July 1981 to fill a seat on the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho vacated by Ray McNichols. Reagan appointed Ryan on December 7 and he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on December 16, 1981. Ryan served a term as chief judge from 1988 to 1992, and assumed senior status on December 30, 1992.
Ryan remained on the bench until his death from cancer on April 10, 1995, and is buried at Morris Hill Cemetery in Boise.
Notable cases
In the mid 1980s, Ryan ruled in favor of inmate Walter "Bud" Balla and others that conditions in the state prison violated their constitutional rights. He imposed a cap on inmate population which necessitated the construction of a new maximum security facility.
In the early 1990s, Ryan presided over the Ruby Ridge case.
In the spring of 1993, Ryan ruled in favor of the state of Idaho in its long-running dispute with the federal government over storage of nuclear waste at the Idaho National Laboratory in eastern Idaho. As a consequence, the U.S. government significantly reduced the amount of low-level nuclear waste shipped to Idaho.