M. Margaret McKeown

M. Margaret McKeown is a Senior United States Circuit Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, based in San Diego. Appointed by President Bill Clinton and confirmed on April 8, 1998, she assumed senior status on September 15, 2022. Her judicial career includes presiding over significant cases involving tribal gaming, sports betting contracts, and gambling-related disputes, such as United States v. Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel and the Kalshi sports-contracts appeal. These decisions establish her as an authoritative figure on legal issues intersecting with the iGaming industry, though she is not a commercial operator.

Before her judgeship, McKeown served as a White House Fellow from 1980 to 1981, working as a Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior and a Special Assistant for Domestic Policy. She then became the first female partner at Perkins Coie LLP, where she specialized in antitrust, intellectual property, and complex litigation until her judicial appointment in 1998. Her early legal career laid a foundation for her later work on complex litigation and appellate law.

Currently, McKeown also serves as Jurist-in-Residence at the University of San Diego School of Law and as an affiliated scholar at Stanford’s Center for the American West. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and serves on the board of the World Justice Project. Her contributions to the legal profession have been recognized with numerous awards, including the ABA Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award and the American Inns of Court Ninth Circuit Professionalism Award. Through her judicial decisions and academic roles, she continues to influence legal frameworks relevant to gambling and gaming regulation.