Ebel was nominated by President
Ronald Reagan on December 18, 1987, to a seat on the
United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit vacated by Judge
William Edward Doyle. Ebel was confirmed by the
United States Senate on April 19, 1988, and received his commission on April 20, 1988. He assumed
senior status on January 16, 2006. During his tenure Ebel served seven years on the
Judicial Conference Code of Conduct Committee, presiding over the consolidation of several separate employee codes into the unified Code of Conduct for Judicial Employees, applicable to nearly all federal judicial employees. He served as the presiding judge on the panel that heard the appeal of
Timothy McVeigh, the
Oklahoma City bombing perpetrator, in 1998. ==International judicial work==