Orlando Luis Garcia (born November 18, 1952) is a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas and former

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

state legislator A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United S ...

Education and career

Born in Jim Wells County,

, Garcia received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree from the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...

in 1975 and a Juris Doctor from the

University of Texas School of Law The University of Texas School of Law (Texas Law) is the law school of the University of Texas at Austin. Texas Law is consistently ranked as one of the top law schools in the United States and is highly selective—registering the 8th lowest ac ...

in 1978. He was in private practice in

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

, Texas from 1978 to 1990, and a Texas state representative from 1983 to 1991. From 1991 to 1992 he was a judge of the Texas Fourth Court of Appeals.

Federal judicial service

He was nominated by President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

on November 19, 1993, to a seat which had been vacated by Emilio M. Garza over two years before. Garcia 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 March 10, 1994, and received his commission on March 11, 1994. He became chief judge on January 1, 2016 and served until November 18, 2022, when he turned 70 years old. On February 26, 2014, in San Antonio, Garcia overturned the Texas ban on

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...

, ruling that the prohibition is unconstitutional and stigmatizes the relationship of gay couples in the conservative state. He stayed his ruling pending appeal. In August 2017, Garcia granted a preliminary injunction against Texas Senate Bill 4, which imposed prohibitions against certain local policies relating to immigration. That injunction was reversed in part by the

United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (in case citations, 5th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * Eastern District of Louisiana * M ...

in May 2018.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia, Orlando Luis 1952 births Living people 20th-century American judges 21st-century American judges Hispanic and Latino American judges Hispanic and Latino American state legislators in Texas Judges of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas Members of the Texas House of Representatives People from Jim Wells County, Texas Texas Democrats United States district court judges appointed by Bill Clinton University of Texas School of Law alumni

Education and career

Federal judicial service

See also

References

Sources