Southern District of California
Ninth Circuit
Judgeships
Posts: 13
Judges: 12
Vacancies: 1
Judges
Chief:Dana Sabraw
Active judges:Cynthia A. Bashant,Cathy Bencivengo,Benjamin Cheeks,Robert Huie,Linda Lopez,Ruth Bermudez Montenegro,Jinsook Ohta,Todd Robinson,Dana Sabraw,Janis Sammartino,Andrew G. Schopler,James Simmons Senior judges: Michael Anello,Anthony J. Battaglia,Roger Benitez,Gonzalo P. Curiel,William Hayes,John Houston,Marilyn Huff,James Lorenz,Jeffrey Miller,Barry Moskowitz,Thomas Whelan

TheUnited States District Court for the Southern District of California is one of 94United States district courts. The district operates out of three courthouses in San Diego and one in El Centro. When decisions of the court are appealed, they are appealed to theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit based in downtownSan Francisco at the James R. Browning Federal Courthouse.

Vacancies

See also:Current federal judicial vacancies

There is one current vacancy on theUnited States District Court for the Southern District of California, out of the court's 13 judicial positions.

Pending nominations

There are no pending nominees for this court.

Active judges

Article III judges

Active Article III judges by appointing political party

The list below displays the number of active judges by the party of the appointing president. It does not reflect how a judge may rule on specific cases or their own political preferences.

• Democratic appointed: 8
• Republican appointed: 3

Senior judges

Senior judges by appointing political party

The list below displays the number of senior judges by the party of the appointing president. It does not reflect how a judge may rule on specific cases or their own political preferences.

• Democratic appointed: 6
• Republican appointed: 5

Magistrate judges

Federal magistrate judges are federal judges who serve inUnited States district courts, but they are not appointed by the president and they do not serve life terms. Magistrate judges are assigned duties by the district judges in the district in which they serve. They may preside over most phases of federal proceedings, except for criminal felony trials. The specific duties of a magistrate judge vary from district to district, but the responsibilities always include handling matters that would otherwise be on the dockets of the district judges. Full-time magistrate judges serve for renewable terms of eight years. Some federal district courts have part-time magistrate judges, who serve for renewable terms of four years.^[1]

Former chief judges

In order to qualify for the office ofchief judge in an Article III circuit or district court, or on theUnited States Court of International Trade, a judge must be in active service and hold seniority over the court's commissioned judges who are 64 years of age or under, have served one year or more, and have not previously served as chief judge.^[2]

In the event that no judge on the court meets those qualifications, the youngest judge in regular active service aged 65 years or more and who has served as a judge for one year or more shall become chief judge. If no judge meets those qualifications, the judge holding seniority in active service who has not served as chief before shall become the chief judge.^[3][4][5]

The chief judge serves for a term of seven years until another judge becomes eligible to serve in the position. No judge is permitted to serve as chief judge after reaching the age of 70 years unless no other judge is qualified to serve.^[3][4][5]

Unlike the chief justice of the United States, a chief judge returns to active service after the expiration of their term and does not create a vacancy on the court by the fact of their promotion.^[2][3][4][5]

On theUnited States Court of Federal Claims, the chief judge is selected by thepresident of the United States. The judge must be less than 70 years of age. A chief may serve until they reach age 70 or until another judge is designated by the president as the new chief judge. If the president selects a new chief judge, the former chief judge may continue active service on the court for the remainder of their appointed term.^[6]

Former judges

For more information about the judges of the Southern District of California, seeformer federal judges of the Southern District of California.

Jurisdiction

The Counties of the Southern District of California (click for larger map)

The Southern District of California hasoriginal jurisdiction over cases filed within its jurisdiction. These cases can include civil and criminal matters that fall under federal law.

The geographic jurisdiction of the Southern District of California consists of theImperial andSan Diegocounties in the southern part of the state ofCalifornia.

Caseloads

This section contains court management statistics dating back to 2010. It was last updated in September 2025.

Click[show] below for more information on caseload terms and definitions.

History

The Southern District of California was established by Congress onSeptember 28, 1850. Congress had organizedCalifornia into two judicial districts, theNorthern and the Southern, with one judgeship for each court. Since the district courts were not assigned to a judicial circuit, they were granted civil jurisdiction like U.S. circuit courts, except in appeals and writs of error, which are the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.

In 1852, Congress passed a statute to give the Northern District judge authority over the Southern District as well. Two years later, the Southern District judgeship was reauthorized.

In 1855, the United States Circuit Court for the Districts of California was established. This repealed the trial court jurisdiction of the California federal district courts. The courts still continued to exercise appellate jurisdiction in certain cases involving land claims.

In 1863, the California Circuit was abolished and the Tenth Circuit was created. This circuit consisted of the California and Oregon judicial districts and eliminated the remaining appellate jurisdiction of the district courts of California.

In July 1866, the federal judiciary was organized into nine circuits. California's single judicial district, with one authorized judgeship, fell into the Ninth Circuit.

Twenty years later, the districts were again divided into the Northern and Southern districts, with one judgeship each.

TheEvarts Act of 1891 reorganized the federal judiciary, establishing the federal district courts as trial courts which appealed to the circuit courts of appeal.

Over time, 12 additional judicial posts were added to the Southern District for a total of 13 current posts.^[7]

Judicial posts

The following table highlights the development of judicial posts for the Southern District of California:^[7]

Noteworthy cases

Noteworthy events

Federal Judicial Conference recommendation (2019)

In March 2019, the Federal Judicial Conference (FJC) recommended that four judgeships be added to the district.^[9] Based on FJC data, the district handled 640 weighted filings per judgeship from September 2017 to September 2018. Weighted filings are a specific metric used by the federal judiciary that accounts for the different amounts of time judges require to resolve types of civil and criminal cases. The national average in that period for weighted filings per judgeship was 513.^[10]

The FJC is the policy-making body for the United States federal courts system. It was first organized as the Conference of Senior Circuit Judges in 1922.^[11] The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States serves as chair of the conference. The members of the conference are the chief judge of each judicial circuit, the Chief Judge of the Court of International Trade, and a district judge from each regional judicial circuit.^[12]

Federal courthouse

Two separate courthouses serve the Southern District of California.

About United States District Courts

TheUnited States district courts are the generaltrial courts of theUnited States federal courts. There are 94 such courts. Bothcivil andcriminal cases are filed in the district court, which is a court of both law and equity.

There is aUnited States bankruptcy court and a number ofbankruptcy judges associated with each United States district court. Eachfederal judicial district has at least one courthouse, and most districts have more than one.

There is at least one judicial district for each state, and one each for Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. District courts in three insular areas—the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands—exercise the same jurisdiction as U.S. district courts. Despite their name, these courts are technically not District Courts of the United States. Judges on theseterritorial courts do not enjoy the protections ofArticle III of the Constitution, and serve terms of 10 years rather than for life.

There are677 U.S. District Court judgeships.^[13][14]

The number of federal district judge positions is set by the U.S. Congress in Title 28 of the U.S. Code, Section 133, which authorizes a set number of judge positions, or judgeships, making changes and adjustments in these numbers from time to time.

In order to relieve the pressure of trying the hundreds of thousands of cases brought before the federal district courts each year, many trials are tried by juries, along with a presiding judge.^[15]

Appointments by president

The chart below shows the number of district court judges confirmed by the U.S. Senate through February 1 of the second year of presidents' second term in office. At this point in the term, President Obama had the most district court appointments with 32.

Judges by district

See also:Judicial vacancies in federal courts

The table below displays the number of judges in each district and indicates how many were appointed by presidents from each major political party. It also includes the number of vacancies in a district and how many pending nominations for that district are before theUnited States Senate. The table can be sorted by clicking the column headers above the line, and you can navigate through the pages by clicking the arrows at the top of the table. It is updated every Monday.

Judicial selection

The district courts are served byArticle III federal judges who are appointed for life during "good behavior." They are usually first recommended by senators (or members of the House, occasionally). The President of the United States makes the appointments, which must then be confirmed by the U.S. Senate in accordance withArticle III of the United States Constitution.^[14]

Step	A Candidacy Proceeds	A Candidacy Halts
1. Recommendation made by Congress Member to the President	President Nominates toSenate Judiciary Committee	President Declines Nomination
2. Senate Judiciary Committee interviews Candidate	Sends candidate to Senate for confirmation	Returns candidate to President, who may re-nominate to Committee
3. Senate votes on candidate confirmation	Candidate becomes federal judge	Candidate does not receive judgeship

Magistrate judges

The district courts are also served by magistrate judges. Congress created the judicial office offederal magistrate in 1968. In 1990, the position title was changed tomagistrate judge. The chief judge of each district appoints one or more magistrate judges, who discharge many of the ancillary duties of district judges so judges can handle more trials. There are both full-time and part-time magistrate judge positions, and these positions are assigned to the district courts according to caseload criteria (subject to funding by Congress). A full-time magistrate judge serves a term of eight years; a part-time magistrate judge's term of office is four years.^[16]

See also

External links

• Search Google News for this topic
• United States District Court for the Southern District of California Official Website
• Federal Judicial Center

Footnotes

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v • e Federal judges who have served theUnited States District Court for the Southern District of California
Active judges	Chief Judge: Dana Sabraw  •  Janis Sammartino  •  Cathy Bencivengo  •  Cynthia A. Bashant  •  Ruth Bermudez Montenegro  •  Andrew Schopler  •  James Simmons (California)  •  Todd Robinson (California)  •  Linda Lopez (California)  •  Jinsook Ohta  •  Robert Huie
Senior judges	Michael Anello  •  Roger Benitez  •  William Hayes  •  Thomas Whelan  •  John Houston (California)  •  Barry Moskowitz  •  Jeffrey Miller  •  James Lorenz  •  Marilyn Huff  •  Anthony J. Battaglia  •  Gonzalo Curiel  •
Magistrate judges	Barbara Major  •  Karen Crawford  •  Bernard Skomal  •  Jill L. Burkhardt  •  Mitchell D. Dembin  •  Michael Berg (federal magistrate judge)  •  Allison Goddard  •  Daniel Butcher (California)  •
Former Article III judges	Erskine Mayo Ross  •  James Marshall Carter  •  Ogden Hoffman  •  James McHall Jones  •  Isaac Stockton Keith Ogier  •  Fletcher Mathews Haight  •  Olin Wellborn  •  Benjamin Franklin Bledsoe  •  Oscar Trippet  •  William James  •  Irma Gonzalez (federal judge)  •  Rudi Brewster  •  Gordon Thompson  •  Larry Burns  •  Napoleon Jones  •  Edward Henning  •  Paul John McCormick  •  John Clifford Wallace  •  George Cosgrave  •  Harry Aaron Hollzer  •  Albert Lee Stephens, Sr.  •  Leon Rene Yankwich  •  Ralph Jenney  •  Campbell Beaumont  •  Albert Lee Stephens, Jr.  •  William Byrne, Sr.  •  Charles Carr  •  Thurmond Clarke  •  Elisha Crary  •  Jesse Curtis  •  William Gray (California)  •  Peirson Hall  •  Andrew Hauk  •  Irving Hill  •  Reuben Brooks  •  Leo Papas  •  Francis Whelan  •  Earl Gilliam  •  Lawrence Irving  •  Judith Keep  •  Fred Kunzel  •  William Mathes  •  Leland Nielsen  •  James O'Connor (California)  •  John Rhoades  •  Edward Schwartz  •  Ernest Tolin  •  Jacob Weinberger  •  Harry Westover  •  Howard Turrentine  •  Benjamin Harrison (Federal Judge)  •
Former Chief judges	James Marshall Carter  •  Irma Gonzalez (federal judge)  •  Gordon Thompson  •  Larry Burns  •  Marilyn Huff  •  Paul John McCormick  •  Leon Rene Yankwich  •  William Byrne, Sr.  •  Thurmond Clarke  •  Peirson Hall  •  Judith Keep  •  Fred Kunzel  •  William Mathes  •  Edward Schwartz  •  Howard Turrentine  •  Benjamin Harrison (Federal Judge)  •