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William Horsley Orrick III (born May 15, 1953) is an American lawyer and judge. A native of
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " 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 fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
, Orrick has been a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California since 2013. He formerly had a long career as a lawyer in private practice in San Francisco, and served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Division of the
United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...
during the
Obama administration Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. A Democrat from Illinois, Obama took office following a decisive victory over Republican ...
.


Early life and education

Orrick was born in
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " 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 fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
on May 15, 1953. His father, William H. Orrick Jr. (1915–2003), was a United States District Judge for the Northern District of California and served as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division in the John F. Kennedy administration. His mother, Marion Naffziger Orrick ( 1995), was active in San Francisco civic life. Orrick's uncle, Andrew Downey Orrick, was acting chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in San Francisco. Orrick received his B.A. ''
cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...
'', from
Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...
in 1976. He received his J.D. ''cum laude'', from
Boston College Law School Boston College Law School (BC Law) is the law school of Boston College. It is situated on a wooded campus in Newton, Massachusetts, about 1.5 miles from the university's main campus in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. With approximately 800 stud ...
in 1979.


Legal career

From 1977 to 1979 he was a student attorney for the Boston College Legal Assistance Bureau. After graduating, Orrick worked from 1979 to 1984 at the Georgia Legal Services Program in
Savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...
, providing
legal aid Legal aid is the provision of assistance to people who are unable to afford legal representation and access to the court system. Legal aid is regarded as central in providing access to justice by ensuring equality before the law, the right to c ...
services to low-income Georgians. Upon returning to
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " 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 fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
, he chose to join
William Coblentz William Weber Coblentz (November 20, 1873 – September 15, 1962) was an American physicist notable for his contributions to infrared radiometry and spectroscopy. Early life, education, and employment William Coblentz was born in North Lima, O ...
's Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass LLP, rather than the law firm co-founded by his grandfather William Orrick Sr., Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP. Orrick practiced at the Coblentz firm for about 25 years, from 1984 to 2009. He joined as an associate in 1984 and was promoted to partner in 1988. Orrick then served in the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, first as counselor (June 2009 – June 2010) and then as deputy assistant attorney general (June 2010–2013), heading the Office of Immigration Litigation. Orrick returned to Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass for ten months while his nomination to the district court was pending in the Senate.


Federal judicial service

On June 11, 2012, President
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
nominated Orrick to be a United States District Judge for the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, to the seat vacated by Judge Charles R. Breyer, who assumed
senior status Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...
on December 31, 2011. The
American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of aca ...
's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, which rates the qualifications of federal judicial nominees, unanimously rated Orrick "well qualified" for the judgeship (the committee's highest rating). The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Orrick's nomination on July 11, 2012. His nomination was reported out of committee on August 2, 2012 by a 12–6 vote. However, his nomination was blocked by Senate Republicans, and on January 2, 2013, his nomination was returned to the President, due to the adjournment ''sine die'' of the Senate at the end of the
112th Congress The 112th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, from January 3, 2011, until January 3, 2013. It convened in Washington, D.C. on January 3, 2011, and ended on January 3, 2013, 17 ...
. The next day, January 3, 2013, he was renominated to the same office. His nomination was reported by the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 28, 2013 by a 11–7 vote. The U.S. Senate confirmed his nomination on May 15, 2013 by a 56–41 vote, with three senators not voting. The confirmation vote was mostly on party lines, with all Democrats and three Republican Senators (
Jeff Flake Jeffry Lane Flake (born December 31, 1962) is an American politician and diplomat who is the current U.S Ambassador to Turkey. A member of the Republican Party, Flake served in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2013 and ...
, Susan Collins, and
Lisa Murkowski Lisa Ann Murkowski ( ; born May 22, 1957) is an American attorney and politician serving as the senior United States senator for Alaska, having held that seat since 2002. Murkowski is the second-most senior Republican woman in the Senate, after S ...
) voting to confirm Orrick and all other Republicans voting against confirmation. He received his commission the following day. As a federal judge, Orrick established chambers in the Phillip Burton Federal Building in San Francisco.


Notable cases

In 2014, Orrick upheld California state legislation that banned the possession and sale of shark fin, a prohibition aimed at stopping the practice of shark finning. Orrick rejected the claim of a group of
San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area G ...
Chinese American Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from ...
businesses and shark fin suppliers that the ban was unconstitutionally discriminatory. Orrick wrote that although "people of Chinese origin or culture undoubtedly overwhelmingly comprise the market for shark fin,... a law is not unconstitutional simply because it has a racially disparate impact."Bob Egelko
California shark fin ban upheld by federal judge
''San Francisco Chronicle'' (March 26, 2014).
Orrick's dismissal of the case was affirmed on appeal. In 2015, Orrick denied a motion filed by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) to dismiss the case against it arising from pollution discharges into
San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water f ...
by PG&E's manufactured fuel gas (oil and coal) power plants decades earlier. Orrick held that PG&E's refusal to test for groundwater contamination at the former plants gave rise to a continuing "imminent and substantial endangerment" to the environment and human health, particularly in the Marina District and Fisherman's Wharf neighborhoods.Bob Egelko
PG&E settles lawsuit over pollution from old power plants in San Francisco
''San Francisco Chronicle'' (September 28, 2018).
In 2018, Orrick approved a settlement of the case, in which PG&E agreed to monitor and potentially clean up pollution from its old sites and agreed to make payments to a conservation organization and habitat restoration efforts. Orrick is the judge assigned to oversee the reforms of the Oakland Police Department mandated by the department's 2003 settlement of ''
Allen v. City of Oakland ''Delphine Allen et al. v. City of Oakland'' (or the Riders Case or Riders Scandal) was a civil rights lawsuit in Federal District Court regarding police misconduct in Oakland, California which has resulted in ongoing Federal oversight. Plaintif ...
'', a long-running case involving systemic police misconduct.Mayor Says She Shares Judge's Concerns About Police Department
Bay City News Service (August 22, 2019).
In hearings, Orrick has pushed the department to make more progress on reforms. Robert Warshaw is the court-appointed monitor of the Oakland Police Department reforms.Judge Appoints Attorney To Investigate Fatal Shooting By Officers
Bay City News Service (March 5, 2019).
In March 2019, Orrick appointed an attorney to serve as an independent investigator to probe the killing of a homeless man with mental health problems who was shot by Oakland police in 2018. At an August 2019 court conference, Orrick criticized the city for not making sufficient progress in eliminating racial disparities in policing. In 2015, Orrick issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking the
Center for Medical Progress The Center for Medical Progress (CMP) is an anti-abortion organization founded by David Daleiden in 2013. The CMP is best known for producing undercover recordings that prompted Planned Parenthood 2015 undercover videos controversy, a controve ...
(CMP), an anti-abortion group, from releasing secretly recorded videos of the National Abortion Federation (NAF). CMP had earlier released heavily edited videos, which purported to show that
Planned Parenthood The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is a nonprofit organization that provides reproductive health care in the United States and globally. It is a tax-exempt corporation under Internal Reve ...
had been inappropriately selling fetal tissue. In his decision granting a restraining order, Orrick wrote that a TRO was necessary to prevent irreparable harm to NAF "in the form of harassment, intimidation, violence, invasion of privacy, and injury to reputation, and the requested relief is in the public interest." In subsequent proceedings, Orrick reviewed hundreds of hours of videos and found no evidence of wrongdoing on NAF's behalf, and concluded that the CMP, led by anti-abortion activist David Daleiden, had "misleadingly edited videos to make it appear as though abortion providers were breaking the law." In 2016, Orrick subsequently issued a
preliminary injunction An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in p ...
against CMP blocking the release of their videos; after Daleiden violated the injunction, Orrick found Daleiden and his two attorneys in civil contempt and fined them $195,000. The contempt finding was upheld on appeal. In April 2017, Orrick stayed the implementation of the
Trump administration Donald Trump's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 45th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Donald Trump, his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican Party ...
's
Executive Order 13768 Executive Order 13768 titled Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States was signed by U.S. President Donald Trump on January 25, 2017. The order stated that "sanctuary jurisdictions" including sanctuary cities that refused to c ...
to withhold funding from
sanctuary cities Sanctuary city (; ) refers to municipal jurisdictions, typically in North America, that limit their cooperation with the national government's effort to enforce immigration law. Leaders of sanctuary cities say they want to reduce fear of deport ...
that limit cooperation with
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration tha ...
authorities, saying Trump had no authority to attach new conditions to federal spending. In November 2017, Orrick ruled in favor of the City and County of San Francisco and County of Santa Clara (who challenged the order), finding that Section 9(a) of the Executive Order was unconstitutional on its face as a violation of the separation of powers doctrine and the counties' Tenth and Fifth Amendment rights and issuing a nationwide permanent injunction against its implementation. In 2018, Orrick's ruling was upheld on appeal, but the scope of the injunction was narrowed to San Francisco and Santa Clara. In February 2018, Orrick issued a
preliminary injunction An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in p ...
ordering the Trump administration to enforce limits on methane emissions from oil and gas wells on federal and tribal land. (Methane is a
greenhouse gas A greenhouse gas (GHG or GhG) is a gas that absorbs and emits radiant energy within the thermal infrared range, causing the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere are water vapor (), carbon dioxide (), methane ...
that, when released into the atmosphere, is a cause of climate change.) Orrick's order directed the
U.S. Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's l ...
to halt the Trump administration's suspension of an Obama administration-era regulations that required fossil-fuel extractors on federal lands to take steps to reduce flaring and venting, and thus prevent methane leakage.
State of California v. Bureau of Land Management
', 286 F. Supp. 3d 1054 (N.D. 2018).


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Orrick, William Horsley III 1953 births Boston College Law School alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California Living people William Horsley III Lawyers from San Francisco United States district court judges appointed by Barack Obama 21st-century American judges Yale University alumni 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American lawyers