Biden nominates judges for Fresno and San Diego

President Joe Biden on Wednesday nominated Fresno County Superior Court Judge Ana I. de Alba and Jones Day partner Robert S. Huie to fill two more California district court vacancies.

De Alba, a former partner with Lang, Richert & Patch who handled employment law as an attorney, would fill a Fresno vacancy in the Eastern District. Huie, a former federal prosecutor, would fill a vacancy in the Southern District.

Eastern District Chief Judge Kimberly J. Mueller

U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd, an appointee of President Barack Obama, has been working in Fresno but plans to move to Sacramento once both Article III judgeships in Fresno are filled.

"We respect the roles the legislative and executive branches will play before Judge de Alba can be appointed, and hope the process moves swiftly now, given the vacancy's long duration and the pressing need for federal judicial resources in California's great Central Valley," Mueller wrote in a statement.

If confirmed, De Alba would fill a seat that has been vacant since late 2019.

"We've been asked to do too much," Mueller said in a phone interview Wednesday.

Huie is a former Latham & Watkins LLP litigator who subsequently joined the U.S. attorney's office in the Southern District of California in 2008. During that time, he also served as a legal adviser to the Justice Department's Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training for three years.

He left the U.S. attorney's office for Jones Day, where he is of counsel, in 2020.

Southern District Chief Judge Dana Sabraw praised Huie, who he dealt with during his time as a federal prosecutor, as a "wonderful choice" in a phone interview.

The judge, who still has four vacancies -- including three without nominations by the president -- in his district, encouraged Biden to keep adding judges.

"I would like to urge the White House to keep nominating," Sabraw said in a phone interview.

The Biden administration has picked up the pace on nominations in recent months, though only four district court judges were confirmed in 2021.

The president nominated eight other district court judges in California last year. The Senate Judiciary Committee will consider the nomination of Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Hernan Vera on Thursday. His nomination did not get a floor vote last year after the committee -- which is split between Democrats and Republicans -- deadlocked on his nomination.

Two other nominees -- U.S. Magistrate Judge Ruth Bermudez Montenegro of San Diego, picked for the Southern District; and U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley of San Francisco, tapped for the Northern District -- had Senate Judiciary Committee hearings but did not get floor votes.

Biden has not nominated anyone for five other California district court vacancies, and two more positions will open up this year when judges take senior status.

De Alba, a graduate of UC Berkeley School of Law who also got her undergraduate degree there, is the child and grandchild of Mexican immigrants. She has been mentioned as a possible nominee by Gov. Gavin Newsom for a vacancy on the California Supreme Court, especially because it is widely assumed the governor will nominate a Latina to replace former Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuellar.

U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez of the Eastern District is scheduled to take senior status in April. Mueller said the Fresno seat and Mendez's seat must be filled just so the court can have six Article III judges. That's the same number of judges the court, which covers a sprawling region of California from the Oregon border to Kern County, had in 1978, when its population was less than half what it is now, Mueller noted. She said the court needs five additional judges.