Martin I. Welsh

Martin I. Welsh was appointed by President Roosevelt on July 14, 1939. He was the first federal judge to reside and sit permanently in Sacramento.

Welch, a life long Democrat and prominent civic worker, was a natural candidate for the newly created position. Born in San Jose in 1882, he began his study of the law at Stanford University while working as a plumber and continued his legal education by reading books he obtained from the state library after moving to Sacramento in 1908.

In 1914, two years after he was admitted to the bar, Welch was appointed to the bench by Governor Hiram Johnson to finish an unexpired term on the Sacramento Superior Court. During the administration of President Woodrow Wilson, he served as a United States Commissioner (the predecessor of what is now a federal magistrate judge) for five years. He also served as a deputy district attorney, member of the Board of Education, member of the City Council and Mayor of Sacramento.

After running unsuccessfully for Lieutenant Governor on the Democratic ticket in 1930, Welch was again appointed to the Sacramento County Superior Court by Governor James Rolph, Jr. in 1932. He held that position until his appointment to the federal bench in 1939.

Having an official residence in Sacramento did not mean that Judge Welch held court only in Sacramento, however. Rather, he divided his time between Sacramento and San Francisco, as well as occasional sessions in other parts of the state. Looking back at the records, it appears that there was not enough work in Sacramento to keep Judge Welsh busy on a full time basis. Many of the published decisions involving his cases indicate that he was sitting in the Southern Division much of the time.

In his later years on the bench Judge Welsh’s health began to fail and he retired to the Bay Area to live, after which his health improved, but he never returned to the bench after that. From the records, it appears that there were several months in later 1946 and early 1947 after Judge Welsh left, during which there was no resident District Judge in Sacramento.

Dal M. Lemmon

The next judge to reside and sit permanently in Sacramento was Judge Walsh’s former colleague on the Sacramento County Superior Court bench, Dal Millington Lemmon. A native of Kansas, Judge Lemmon had moved to Santa Rosa, California with his family as a young boy. After receiving his bachelor’s and law degrees from Stanford, he came to Sacramento in 1909 to be the State Law Librarian. He practiced law in a two member firm for 23 years before being appointed to the Superior Court in 1933. Although a Republican, he was appointed to the federal court by President Truman on February 17, 1947, and held down the fort in Sacramento for a little over 7 years, until he was elevated to the Court of Appeals by President Eisenhower on May 4, 1954.

Judge Halbert

Four months later, on September 16, 1954, the President appointed Judge Lemon’s successor. He was a no-nonsense Superior Court Judge from Stanislaus County, who had served as a Deputy Attorney General for the State of California, a deputy district attorney in both Stanislaus and Tulare County, and District Attorney in Modesto. He had also engaged in the private practice of law in his home town of Porterville, and had been associated for a short time with the McCutchen firm in San Francisco. His name was Sherrill Halbert.

Judge MacBride

Judge Halbert sat as the only resident federal judge in Sacramento for the next seven years. By this time, the workload of the Northern Division of the Northern District had grown from the time of Judge Welsh, when there was not enough business to keep one judge occupied full time, to the point where it had become more than a single judge could handle. Soon after the court moved to its new quarters, a second judge was therefore authorized to sit full time in Sacramento.

A new, Democratic President having just been elected, the Democratic Congressional delegation in the Northern District of California focused its attention upon the young Democratic Assemblyman who had so successfully managed the Presidential campaign in Sacramento. President Kennedy readily accepted their recommendation, and on September 22, 1961 appointed him as the next United States District Judge in Sacramento. He was Thomas J. MacBride.

The court facilities in the Post Office Building were really only designed to house one District Judge. When Judge MacBride arrived, his courtroom and chambers were substantially smaller and more modest than those of Judge Halbert. Shortly after he moved into his new quarters, Judge MacBride proudly displayed his courtroom to Sacramento attorney Nat Colley. When Colley saw it he is said to have exclaimed, “Oh, this will never do.” “Why?” Judge MacBride asked. “Well,” replied Colley, “whenever I go to federal court I always charge my clients more money because they are convinced it is so much more important than the state court, but now, when they see this courtroom, I am not going to be able to do that any more.”

650 Capitol Mall

Judge Halbert and Judge MacBride continued to sit in the Post Office until 1962, when the the court’s new home at 650 Capitol Mall was completed. The building was built by GSA. Although they were certainly large enough, the new courtrooms were not as pretentious as Judge Halbert’s courtroom at the old Post Office, and their design left a lot to be desired.

When Judge Halbert walked into his courtroom in the new building he found that the bench where the judge was to sit was constructed on the same level as the rest of the courtroom, so that when the judge sat down he would actually have to look up at the lawyers who were standing at the lectern to present their arguments. Needless to say, Judge Halbert demanded that the bench be appropriately elevated before he began hearing any cases in that courtroom.

Also, there was a door on each side of the judge’s bench. On one side, the door lead to the jury deliberation room and the judge’s chambers. On the other side, the door lead to the holding cell for the prisoners. The prisoners were brought to the holding cell by way of a stairway directly from the Marshal’s offices downstairs, and they were brought out from the holding cell one at a time as their cases were called in the courtroom. In the process of bringing them out from the holding cell and returning them again, that door was constantly opening and closing during the course of a single criminal calendar. Since the calendar may last a while, and the prisoners may understandably become a little nervous while waiting for their court appearance, it was necessary to have appropriate restroom facilities in the holding cell. The first time they held a criminal calendar in the new courtroom, it became embarrassingly obvious that when the door to the holding cell opened the attorneys sitting at counsel table and half the audience had a clear view of the prisoner as he sat on the commode. It took a while, but the configuration of the door to the holding cell was eventually changed to correct the problem.

The building as a whole was considered a success, and for its time it was seen as one of the nicest buildings in Sacramento. Only the first two floors were occupied by the court family. The Probation Office, Marshal’s Office, Court Reporters, and U.S. Commissioner (who was the predecessor to the U.S. Magistrates) were on the first floor, along with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Border Patrol, GSA, and of course the Cafeteria. The courtrooms, chambers, Grand Jury room, and Clerk’s office were on the second floor, along with the U.S. Attorney’s office and a lot of extra space. The rest of the building was occupied by other agencies, including the FBI, Secret Service, Congressional offices, and of course the Army Corps of Engineers, which seemed to absorb any and all available space not being otherwise used. The nice oak paneling in the courtrooms, and at first in the chambers as well, was Judge Halbert’s idea. He preferred the oak to the darker paneling, because he felt it made the chambers and courtrooms seem more bright and spacious.

Unrest

Judge MacBride and Judge Halbert had their chambers in spacious quarters on the north side of the second floor. And with only one law clerk and a crier (instead of two law clerks) each, the judges’ chambers were even more spacious.

With the number of judges having just doubled, and the court now occupying its comfortable new facilities, one would have expected the court to have become complacent, sitting back to savor its newly acquired judicial resources. But that was far from the picture. The seeds of growth had been planted, and the court now had its sights on something bigger.

Chief Judge George Harris presided over the district from his chambers in San Francisco. There was little interaction between the judges in San Francisco and the Judges in Sacramento. The Clerk of the Court, James P. Welch, had his office in San Francisco. United States Attorney Cecil Poole and U.S. Marshal Ted Heslip ran their offices from San Francisco. The U.S. Attorney’s office and Marshal’s office in Sacramento were seen as understaffed and sometimes ignored by their parent offices in San Francisco.

This was a constant source of irritation to the judges in Sacramento. Whenever the opportunity presented itself, Judge Halbert was heard to complain that we in Sacramento were only “second class citizens”. When Assistant U.S. Attorney Terry Hatter (later Chief Judge of the U.S. District Judge in Los Angeles) came up from San Francisco to try a case, he recalled that Judge Halbert said to him, “I see that Mr. Poole has sent in another one of his city slickers to help us out.”

A consensus began to develop among the constituency that the court in Sacramento had outgrown its dependence on San Francisco, and the judges in Sacramento were ready to assume independence.

Creation of the District

Before the Eastern District was established, those counties in the Northern District immediately surrounding the San Francisco Bay area were in the “Southern Division”, and all of the remaining counties (including many of the costal counties north of San Francisco which are now part of the Northern District) were in the “Northern Division” of the Northern District. (Stanislaus County and Yosemite Park to the south, and Mendocino and Humboldt counties to the north, for example, were part of the “Northern Division”.) Court for the Southern Division was held in San Francisco and San Jose; and court for the Northern Division was held in Sacramento.

The move to sever the Northern Division from the Northern District and to create a new district was part of a larger plan to break the two districts in California down into four districts. According to Judge MacBride, the individual primarily behind this movement was Chief Judge Richard Chambers, of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Through Judge Chambers’ efforts in lobbying the Administrative Office of the United States Courts and the Judicial Conference of the United States, Congress on March 18, 1966, enacted Public Law 89-372, creating the Eastern District of California, effective six months later.

The Eastern District was essentially formed from what used to be the Northern Division of the Northern District and the Northern Division of the Southern District.

The Mechanics

Some precautions had to be taken in order to avoid the potential pitfalls in making the procedural transition to the new district. Under the sixth amendment, a defendant in a criminal case has a constitutional right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury “of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law”. Thus, for example, a crime committed in Sacramento before September 18, 1966 would have been committed in the Northern District of California. A defendant charged with the commission of that crime would therefore have a constitutional right to be tried by a court and jury of that district. The indictment, even if filed after September 18, 1966 could not be prosecuted in the Eastern District of California, since that district was not “previously ascertained by law”. Accordingly, even after the creation of the Eastern District, all indictments for crimes committed within the territorial boundaries of the new district prior to the date it was created were still captioned in the Northern District of California, Northern Division. The court in Sacramento continued to sit as the United States District Court for both the Northern and Eastern Districts. For crimes committed prior to September 18, 1966, it sat as the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Northern Division; and for crimes committed on or after September 18, 1966, it sat as the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California.

Civil cases were different. By local rule, all civil cases which were pending in the Northern Division of the Northern District as of September 18, 1966 were automatically transferred to the Eastern District as of that date.

As of September 18, 1966, each Assistant U.S. Attorney of the Northern District who had previously been assigned to Sacramento office was reappointed as an Assistant U.S. Attorney of the Eastern District of California, and each Assistant who had previously been assigned to the San Francisco office remained an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District. In order to assure that no case involving the Government was inadvertently prosecuted or defended by an Assistant U.S. Attorney from the wrong district, each Assistant in the new Eastern District was cross-designated as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District and vice versa. The same thing was done in Fresno, so that Assistant U.S. Attorneys out of the new Central District could continue to handle those Fresno cases that had to be prosecuted technically in the old Southern District.

Slip and Slide

The joining of the Northern Division of the Northern District with the Northern Division of the Southern District unwittingly united two old rivals. Judge MacBride was elected to the office of Senior Class President at the University of California School of Law, in Berkeley, with the campaign slogan, “Slip and slide with Tom MacBride.” He won that election in a hard fought campaign against an opponent whose slogan was, “Rock ‘er and sock ‘er with Don Crocker.” After more than 25 years, fate had again brought these two adversaries together.

Judge Crocker

Myron D. Crocker had been sitting as a District Judge in Fresno since he was appointed by President Eisenhower on September 21, 1959. Before his appointment he had been an FBI Agent, A Deputy District Attorney for Madera County, and a Justice Court and Superior Court Judge in Chowchilla.

Cosgrove, Beaumont and Jertberg

According to the records, there had been a judge sitting full time in Fresno since before the time Judge Welsh had been appointed to sit in Sacramento. George Cosgrove was appointed as a United States District Judge for the Southern District of California in April 8, 1930, and the records show him sitting in Fresno from 1931 to 1940. Not all of his time was consumed sitting in Fresno, however. The records also show that Campbell E. Beaumont was appointed on August 5, 1939 (three weeks after Judge Welsh was appointed) to sit in Fresno, and that both Judge Cosgrove and Judge Beaumont sat in Fresno until 1940, after which Judge Beaumont continued to sit in Fresno until he died on November 19, 1954. On April 4, 1955, President Eisenhower appointed Gilbert H. Jertberg to sit on the District Court in Fresno, until he was elevated to the Ninth Circuit on September 1, 1958. Judge Crocker succeeded him almost a year later.

U.S. Attorney and Marshal

The responsibility for appointing a United States Attorney and United States Marshal for the new district rested with President Lyndon Johnson.

John P. Hyland

As United States Attorney, he appointed a Visalia lawyer named John Hyland. He had been a Deputy District Attorney in Tulare County early in his career, and in his private practice he enjoyed a close affiliation with Democratic Congressman Harlan Hagen.

John Begovitch

As U.S. Marshal, he appointed a former State Senator from Amador County named John Begovitch. Begovitch, he fit perfectly into the public image of a U.S. Marshal, ten gallon hat, six-gun and all.

Clerk and Probation Officer

The responsibility for appointing a Clerk of the Court and Chief Probation Officer rested with the Court. As Clerk, the judges appointed William C. Robb, who had been the Deputy Clerk in charge of the Sacramento office before the district was formed. As Chief Probation Officer, the judges selected Richard C. Nicholson, who had been the senior probation officer in the Sacramento office before the District had been formed.

The First Day

September 18, 1966 was an exciting day. Bright and early that morning, the new U. S. Attorney John Hyland arrived in the office with his wife Catherine and his secretary, Lorraine Pine. The first task was to get the attorneys admitted to practice in the new District. A book had been set up in the Clerk’s Office which was to form the roster of attorneys. It would have been a good idea for the first name in that book to be that of the new U.S. Attorney, and the names to follow should be those of the Assistant U.S. Attorneys of the new District in order of their seniority. It didn’t happen quite that way though.

There were two Assistant U.S. Attorneys in the San Francisco office that used to come up regularly to try land condemnation cases. Their names were Larry Burbank, an attorney in the Lands Division, and Chuck Renda, Chief of the Lands Division who later became Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney here under Don Ayer (and after his retirement became the Regional Solicitor for the Department of Interior). Apparently, they had a running competition between them to see who could be admitted to practice in the most courts. Whether they had any real business in Sacramento that day or not, they showed up in the Clerk’s office as soon as the doors opened, each determined to be the first to sign the roster.

That book has been preserved, and the list of attorneys admitted to practice in the district begins with the names A. Lawrence Burbank, Charles R. Renda, John P. Hyland, Rothwell B. Mason, William B. Shubb, and James J. Simonelli in that order.

Magistrates

When the district was formed, there were no U.S. Magistrates. Instead, there were U.S. Commissioners. They issued search and arrest warrants, tried petty offense cases, and held bail hearings in federal criminal cases on government reservations and elsewhere. There was no requirement that they be lawyers. The U.S. Commissioner in Sacramento was Gary V. Schaber, a non-lawyer and the brother of McGeorge School of Law’s Dean Gordon D. Schaber. He continued to serve as Commissioner until the Magistrates Act was enacted on December 1, 1968, replacing the Commissioners with U.S. Magistrates and requiring that they be lawyers. Esther Mix, Judge Wilkin’s former law partner was subsequently appointed as Sacramento’s first U.S. Magistrate.

In due course, the position was later redesignated as Magistrate Judge, and the district has since benefitted from the appointment of John Moulds, Gregory Hollows, Dennis Beck, Sandra Snyder, Peter Nowinski, Donald Pitts, Hollis Best, Dale Drozd, Lawrence O’Neill, Kimberly Mueller, Craig Kellison, William Wunderlich, Gary Austin, Theresa Goldner, Edmund Brennan, Jennifer Thurston, Kendall Newman, Michael Seng, Sheila Oberto, Barbara A. McAuliffe, Carolyn K. Delaney, Allison Claire, and Stanley Boone as magistrate judges.

Bankruptcy Judges

There were no Bankruptcy Judges either when the district was formed. Instead, there were Referees in Bankruptcy. The Bankruptcy Referee in Sacramento was Bob Woodward, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney. When the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978 was later passed, he and those subsequently appointed referees became known as bankruptcy judges.

Federal Defender

Also, when the district was formed, there was no Federal Defender. Counsel was appointed for indigent defendants by going through the yellow pages of the phone book. At the time of arraignment (which was done in District Court, since there were no magistrates yet), if a defendant stated that he did not have the funds to employ counsel, the clerk simply selected the next name in order from the phone book. A good clerk exercised some discretion in skipping over the names of some attorneys and in the selection of attorneys in obviously complex cases. The process did serve to acquaint the courthouse staff with a number of probate, corporate and divorce lawyers into the court that might otherwise have never seen the inside of the federal courthouse, but it left something to be desired in the quality of representation afforded in many criminal cases.

In a move to enhance the quality of representation, the Office of the Federal Defender was created in 1971. E. Richard Walker was selected by the judges to be the first Federal Defender. He had been a law clerk to District Judge Oliver J. Carter of the Northern District, who had sat in Sacramento temporarily many times before the creation of the Eastern District, and he had served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Sacramento as well as the District Attorney of Trinity County and an Assistant Public Defender in Yolo County and a private attorney.

The new Federal Defender on the third floor was viewed with a great deal of suspicion by those in the U.S. Attorney’s Office. It took Dick Walker a few years to gain their trust, by his selection and training of the Assistant Federal Defenders, the way they handled their cases, and their dealings with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Chief Judge Crocker

As the judge with the most seniority in the newly formed district, Judge Halbert would have been its first Chief Judge. However, because of family health problems at the time, he turned down the position, and Judge Crocker, as second in tenure, became the first Chief Judge of the district.

Chief Judge MacBride

After a few months as an administrator, Judge Crocker decided to return to judging as his chief avocation, and passed the Chief Judge’s baton to his old classmate, Judge MacBride on June 20, 1967.

Judge MacBride’s tenure as Chief Judge lasted more than eleven years, to January 15, 1979, shortly before he took senior status on March 25, 1979. He served as Chief Judge of this district longer than any other judge ever has or ever will, since the term of a Chief Judge has now been limited to seven years.

Judge Wilkins

Judge MacBride’s tenure saw Judge Halbert take senior status on September 30, 1969. Sacramento attorney Philip C. Wilkins, former President of the County Bar Association, was appointed on December 18, 1969, to fill Judge Halbert’s position. Judge Wilkins later became our third Chief Judge on January 15, 1979 and served until he took senior status on January 27, 1983.

New Judges

Judge Wilkins’ tenure as Chief Judge witnessed what may have been the most significant transition in the history of the district. In 1978, Congress doubled the number of District Judges authorized for the Eastern District of California. Much of the credit for this belongs to Judge MacBride. During his term as Chief Judge, he had been actively campaigning for additional judges in Sacramento, pointing out to the Administrative Office and the Judicial Council that for three consecutive years the judges in this district had the highest weighted caseload of any judge in the United States. When it began to appear that his efforts might be successful, Congressman Bernie Sisk in Fresno joined the fight and sought approval for another judge to sit in Fresno as well. Accordingly, two new judicial slots were authorized in Sacramento and one in Fresno.

The authorization for the new judges coincided closely with Judge MacBride’s taking senior status, so President Jimmy Carter had the unprecedented opportunity to appoint a total of four judges in this district.

Judges Karlton, Schwartz, Ramirez and Price

To fill Judge MacBride’s slot, the President selected a Sacramento County Superior Court Judge named Lawrence Karlton, who had been a well known ACLU attorney before going on the bench. To fill the two new positions in Sacramento, he selected attorney Milton L. Schwartz, a former member of the Sacramento School Board who had helped found one of Sacramento’s largest and most prestigious law firms, McDonough, Holland, Allen & Schwartz; and Sacramento Municipal Court Judge Raul A. Ramirez.

To fill the newly created position in Fresno, he selected Edward Dean Price, a United States Magistrate and private practitioner from Modesto.

Judge Karlton was appointed on July 24, 1979; and Judges Schwartz, Price, and Ramirez were appointed soon thereafter in November and December of 1979 and May of 1980, respectively. In the course in those few short months, the political complexion of the district changed from a court of predominantly Republican appointees to one of predominantly Democratic appointees.

Chief Judge Karlton & Judge Garcia

When Judge Wilkins took senior status on January 27, 1983, the Chief Judge’s mantle went to Judge Karlton. On March 14, 1984, President Reagan appointed a former Sacramento County Deputy District Attorney, Chief Deputy D.A., Municipal Court Judge and Chief Municipal Court Judge by the name of Edward J. Garcia to fill Judge Wilkins’ position.

Judge Coyle

Judge Crocker took senior status on January 1, 1981. On April 1, 1982, President Reagan appointed Robert E. Coyle, a member of the Board of Governors of the State Bar of California and a partner in the McCormick, Barstow firm in Fresno to fill his slot. (The delay of 16 months in filling the vacancy created by Judge Crocker’s leaving is not unusual.)

Chief Judge Coyle & Chief Judge Emeritus

When Judge Karlton’s term as Chief Judge expired on January 28, 1990, Judge Coyle became the court’s fifth Chief Judge. Judge Karlton became the district’s first “Chief Judge Emeritus”, a title created to designate those judges whose seven year terms as chief judge had been served and who were still sitting as active judges.

Judges Shubb, Levi and Wanger

Judge Coyle’s term as chief judge witnessed what could be characterized as the second-most-significant change in the short history of the district. In a short period of less than one month between December 29, 1989 and January 20, 1990, Judge Price and Judge Schwartz took senior status, and Judge Ramirez resigned from the bench to join the law firm of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliff.

On October 1, 1990, President Bush appointed David F. Levi and William B. Shubb to the positions in Sacramento, and the following February he appointed Oliver W. Wanger to the position in Fresno. In those four months, the pendulum had swung back in the other direction. The political composition of the district had shifted from the bench of predominantly Democratic appointed judges to one of predominantly Republican appointees.

Judge Burrell

By 1991, the work of the district became such that Congress authorized an additional “temporary” judgeship in Sacramento. A judge appointed to fill a temporary position enjoys the same life tenure as all other Article III judges, but will not be replaced after the term of the position expires. President Bush named as that judge Garland E. Burrell, Jr., a former Deputy City Attorney and Assistant United States Attorney, who had served as Chief of the Civil Division.

Judges Damrell and Ishii and Chief Judge Shubb

When Judge Garcia took senior status in 1996, President Clinton appointed Frank C. Damrell, Jr., a Modesto attorney and son of the former Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge of the same name, to fill his position. Judge Damrell thus became the court’s second judge from Stanislaus County. Ironically, Judge Damrell not only succeeded to the seat once held by Judge Halbert, but at one time resided in the same house where Judge Halbert had previously lived.

Judge Coyle’s assumption of senior status in May of 1996 left another vacancy in Fresno, which was filled by Judge Anthony Ishii, a former Fresno County Superior Court judge, who once was a pharmacist. Judge Shubb became the district’s sixth chief judge.

Judges England and O’Neill

When Judge Karlton took senior status in May of 2000, another vacancy was created in Sacramento. President George W. Bush filled it in September of 2002 with Sacramento County Superior Court Judge, and former collegiate football coach who had signed with the NFL, Morrison C. England, Jr.

When Judge Wanger took senior statue in 2006, President Bush appointed Magistrate Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill to replace him in Fresno. Before he was selected as a Magistrate Judge, Judge O’Neill, a former police officer, was Presiding Judge of the Fresno County Superior Court.

Dean Levi and Judge Mendez

When Judge Shubb’s term as Chief Judge expired in 2003, Judge Levi became the District’s Chief Judge. Shortly thereafter, following in the footsteps of his father, Edward H. Levi, who had been the Dean of the University of Chicago Law School before he became Solicitor General and later Attorney General, Judge Levi satisfied a long time ambition when he hung up his judicial robes in 2007 to become the Dean of the Duke University Law School.

To fill his position, President George W. Bush appointed Sacramento County Superior Court Judge John A. Mendez. Judge Mendez was born in Oakland, California and received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University and his J.D. from Harvard. Before his appointment to the Superior Court, he had been an Assistant U. S. Attorney in San Jose, and served as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California from 1992 to 1993. When not serving in the U. S. Attorney’s Office, he was in private practice in Sacramento.

Judge Burrell filled in for Judge Levi as Chief Judge for several months, before turning over the reins to Judge Ishii. Upon Judge Ishii’s assuming senior status on October 31, 2012, Judge England became the district’s Chief Judge.

Judges Mueller, Nunley and Drozd

Judge Damrell took senior status on December 31, 2008. To fill his position, President Obama nominated the first woman Article III Judge in the District’s history. Kimberly J. Mueller, who had served as a United States Magistrate Judge since 2003, was confirmed and assumed the duties of United States District Judge on December 21, 2010.

In September of 2011, Judge Wanger took full retirement to return to the private practice of law in Fresno. In December of 2011, Judge Damrell followed suit and took full retirement to head up the Sacramento office of the law firm of Cotchett. Petrie, and McCarthy.

Judge Burrell took senior status on his birthday, July 4, 2012. President Obama nominated Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Troy L. Nunley to take his place on the court. Judge Nunley, sworn in on March 26, 2013, had served as a Deputy District Attorney in Alameda and Sacramento Counties, as well as a Deputy Attorney General before his appointment to the Supeior Court in 2002.

It took a while to replace Judge Ishii in Fresno, but on February 18, 2016, Dale A. Drozd was formally enrobed in a ceremony in the rotunda of the Robert E. Coyle United States Courthouse in Fresno. Judge Drozd had previously sat in as a United States Magistrate Judge in Sacramento, but moved his duty station to Fresno to assume his Article III duties.

Roseville Explosion

It would be difficult to single out any case or cases that should be included in a history of the district. Many cases seem important at the time, but for the most part the court has simply decided cases and controversies as they arose. At least three cases deserve special mention. The first would be the so-called Roseville explosion case.
Early on the morning of April 28, 1973, residents of the Sacramento area were awakened by what sounded like a bomb attack. Tritonol bombs were being transported from Hawthorne, Nevada to the Bay Area in boxcars of a Southern Pacific train. As the train passed through Roseville, for some unexplained reason, the bombs ignited. There ensued a lawsuit between the Southern Pacific Transportation Company and the United States to determine who was responsible for the damage caused to the homeowners whose homes were damaged or destroyed in the explosion.

The trial of that case lasted over two years. It was the longest trial in the history of the district, and Judge MacBride cites it as the primary reason for his taking senior status.

Squeaky Fromme

The next case would be United States v. Lynette “Squeaky Fromme”, tried by Judge MacBride in 1976. The case did not involve any complex legal issues. It did not result in a decision which affected any large number of people. It was significant only because of the attention it received in the news media.

As many will recall, on September 5, 1975 a young woman in a red robe pointed a pistol at President Gerald Ford as he walked through Capitol Park in Sacramento. In a way the trial was farcical. It was unusual in the sense that the defendant, determined to act as her own attorney, did not seek an acquittal. She sought to use the trial to bring public attention to a cause. The trial focused the nation’s attention on the bizarre events unfolding in Judge MacBride’s courtroom over a period of several weeks. In the end, both sides won–on November 26, 1975 she was found guilty, and just before Christmas she was sent to prison for life.

The Unabomber Case

The third case would be United States v. Kaczynski, the so-called Unabomber case, presided over by Judge Burrell in 1997-98. Although the case ended in a guilty plea before trial, it attracted world wide media attention, with news reporters, their mobile homes and vehicles, and television equipment filling a whole city block across the street, which became knows as “Camp Kaczynski.”

The New United States Courthouses

In January of 1999, the Sacramento court moved to its present home in the new United States Courthouse at 501 I Street. A 16 story building with 19 courtrooms, it has made a spectacular addition to the City’s skyline. In 2005, the new 8 story federal courthouse opened in Fresno.