Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has died, a court spokesperson confirmed Thursday. He was 87.

Reinhardt, a liberal champion who was appointed to the bench by President Carter in 1980, died of a heart attack, a family spokesperson confirmed. He was at a dermatologist's office Thursday when he died, the court spokesperson told BuzzFeed News. His death, two days after his 87th birthday, was unexpected.

“All of us here at the Ninth Circuit are shocked and deeply saddened by Judge Reinhardt’s death," Judge Sidney R. Thomas, the chief judge of the 9th Circuit, said in a statement. "We have lost a great friend and colleague. As a judge, he was deeply principled, fiercely passionate about the law and fearless in his decisions. He will be remembered as one of the giants of the federal bench. He had a great life that ended much too soon."

Reinhardt authored key liberal court opinions on hot-button topics ranging from abortion and marriage equality to assisted suicide and immigration. He also took aim at the criminal justice system, from criminal defendants' rights to prison conditions to the death penalty.

At the same time, the opinions made him a target of criticism from conservative corners — and of regular reversal from the Supreme Court. He had ruled the inclusion of "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional under the First Amendment and that the Second Amendment's right to bear arms was a collective, not an individual, right — two rulings that the Supreme Court ultimately overruled.



The 9th Circuit, which has prompted President Trump's outrage for its liberal rulings, covers a wide swath of the western states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, the Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon, and Washington state.

The loss to the liberal legal world was summed up by another liberal champion, Harvard Law professor Larry Tribe, who called Reinhardt's death "a devastating loss."

"His intellectual rigor was matched only by his progressive instincts and compassion," Tribe added. "The world is a darker place."