A look at the judges who will rule on Trump's travel ban

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Three judges on the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will decide as soon as Thursday whether to immediately reinstate President Donald Trump's travel ban, which temporarily suspended the nation's refugee program and immigration from seven mostly Muslim countries that have raised terrorism concerns.

[...] 85, he told The Associated Press two years ago that he felt sharp and healthy, but didn't want to risk a job hazard that federal judges with lifetime appointments face: age-related mental decline.

Canby — a former U.S. Air Force lieutenant and Peace Corps worker in Africa who was appointed to the 9th Circuit by President Jimmy Carter in 1980 — is known to have a polite and respectful courtroom demeanor.

Among his more high-profile decisions was a 1988 ruling declaring the U.S. Army's ban on gay soldiers unconstitutional and a 2000 decision that said the PGA Tour is covered by federal disability law and must provide a cart to golfer Casey Martin.

Since joining the court, Clifton has ruled in favor of a Los Angeles ordinance that required hotel operators to open their guest registries at the demand of police and called for a harsher prison sentence for a terrorist who plotted to blow up Los Angeles International Airport.

Friedland was born in California and attended school in New Jersey, where her father worked as the president of a clothing company and her mother was a writing instructor and freelancer, according to Friedland's 2000 wedding announcement in The New York Times.

Of the three judges at Tuesday's hearing, she appeared to be the most sympathetic to Washington state's case, repeatedly questioning the Justice Department's lawyer over the basis for the travel ban: "Have you offered any evidence to support this need you're describing for the executive order, or are you really arguing that we can't even ask about whether there's evidence because this decision is non-reviewable?"