Michael Joseph Roche (July 22, 1878 – July 1, 1964) was a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district, which each cover o ...

of the

United States District Court for the Northern District of California The United States District Court for the Northern District of California (in case citations, N.D. Cal.) is the federal United States district court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties of California: Alameda, Contra Costa, Del ...

Education and career

Born in

An Rinn Ring (, its official name) or Ringagonagh ( ) is a parish within the Irish-speaking Gaeltacht na nDéise area in County Waterford, Ireland. It lies on a peninsula about south of Dungarvan. The main settlement is the village of Ring or Ringvill ...

County Waterford County Waterford ( ga, Contae Phort Láirge) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is part of the South-East Region, Ireland, South-East Region. It is named ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, the son of William and Bridget Foley Roche, Roche received a

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

from Valparaiso University School of Law in 1908. He entered private practice in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

in 1908, and was an assistant district attorney of San Francisco from 1908 to 1910. He was a judge of the Municipal Court of San Francisco from 1910 to 1914, and of the Superior Court of California in San Francisco from 1918 to 1935.

Federal judicial service

On August 21, 1935, Roche was nominated by President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

to a seat on the

vacated by Judge Frank Henry Kerrigan. Roche was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

on August 23, 1935, and received his commission on August 24, 1935. He served as Chief Judge from 1948 to 1958, assuming

senior status Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the Federal judiciary of the United States, federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of servi ...

on March 1, 1958 and serving in that capacity until his death on July 1, 1964.

Notable cases

Roche presided over the trial of

Tokyo Rose Tokyo Rose (alternative spelling Tokio Rose) was a name given by Allied troops in the South Pacific during World War II to all female English-speaking radio broadcasters of Japanese propaganda. The programs were broadcast in the South Pacific ...

. He also denied a writ of ''

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

'' from lawyer James Purcell on behalf of

Mitsuye Endo Mitsuye Maureen Endo Tsutsumi (May 10, 1920 – April 14, 2006) was an American woman of Japanese descent who was placed in an internment camp during World War II. Endo filed a writ of habeas corpus that ultimately led to a United States Supre ...

and 120,000 persons of Japanese descent challenging their wartime detention as unlawful. The Supreme Court heard the case, '' Ex parte Endo'' and freed Endo.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Roche, Michael Joseph 1878 births 1964 deaths California state court judges Judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California United States district court judges appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt 20th-century American judges Superior court judges in the United States Valparaiso University alumni