James Donato
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James Joseph Donato (born July 29, 1960) is a United States district judge 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 ...
.


Biography

Donato was born on July 29, 1960, in
Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. Its ...
, California. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1983 from the University of California, Berkeley. He received an
Artium Magister A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
degree in 1984 from Harvard University. He received a
Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...
in 1988 from Stanford Law School, where he was an executive board member of the '' Stanford Law Review''. Donato served as a
law clerk A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person, generally someone who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial clerks often play significant ...
for Judge
Procter Ralph Hug Jr. Procter Ralph Hug Jr. (March 11, 1931 – October 17, 2019) was a United States federal judge, United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Education and career Born in Reno, Nevada, Reno, Nevada, Hug ...
on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1988 to 1989. From 1990 to 1993, he was an associate at the law firm of
Morrison & Foerster Morrison & Foerster LLP (also known as MoFo) is an American multinational law firm headquartered in San Francisco, California, with 17 offices located throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe. The firm has over 1,000 lawyers who advise cli ...
LLP. He served as a deputy city attorney in the San Francisco City Attorney's Office from 1993 to 1996. He served as a partner at
Cooley LLP Cooley LLP is an American international law firm, headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with offices worldwide. The firm's practice areas include corporate, litigation, intellectual property, fund formation, public markets, employment, life s ...
from 1996 to 2009. From 2009 to 2014 he served as a litigation partner in the San Francisco office of
Shearman & Sterling Shearman & Sterling LLP is a multinational law firm headquartered in New York City, United States. The firm's lawyers come from some 80 countries, speak more than 60 languages and practice US, English, EU, French, Spanish, German, Hong Kong, OHAD ...
LLP. His practice concentrated on antitrust litigation and class action lawsuits. He is a past president of the Bar Association of San Francisco.


Federal judicial service

On June 20, 2013, President Barack Obama nominated Donato to serve as a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, to the seat vacated by Judge James Ware, who retired on August 31, 2012. His nomination was submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Donato's nomination hearing was held on September 11, 2013, before the committee. On October 31, 2013, Donato was unanimously reported out of the committee. On February 12, 2014, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed for cloture on Donato's nomination. On Tuesday February 25, 2014, the
Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
voted 55–42 to invoke cloture on Donato's nomination, with 1 senator voted present. Later that day the nomination was confirmed by a 90–5 vote. Donato received his judicial commission on February 26, 2014.


''Pangea Legal Services v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security''

On January 8, 2021, Donato issued an order blocking the implementation of a rule issued by the United States Department of Homeland Security and United States Department of Justice that would have created new restrictions for those seeking
asylum in the United States The United States recognizes the right of asylum for refugees as specified by international and federal law. A specified number of legally defined refugees who are granted ''refugee status'' outside the United States are annually admitted unde ...
. Donato ruled that purported Acting Secretary of Homeland Security
Chad Wolf Chad Fredrick Wolf (born June 21, 1976) is a former lobbyist and former American government official who was named the acting United States secretary of homeland security in November 2019. His appointment was ruled unlawful in November 2020. Wo ...
lacked authority to impose the rule because he had not been properly appointed to his position. Donato emphasized that he was the fifth federal judge to find that Wolf's appointment was unlawful and criticized the government for recycling the same arguments it had used to unsuccessfully defend Wolf's appointment in the past, writing: "In effect, the government keeps crashing the same car into a gate, hoping that someday it might break through." Wolf resigned his post three days after Donato's ruling—and five days after the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol—saying his action was "warranted by recent events, including the ongoing and meritless court rulings regarding the validity of my authority as Acting secretary."


Other notable cases

In May 2020, Donato ruled that a patent for “Digital Cameras Using Multiple Sensors with Multiple Lenses" was invalid because it was directed at an abstract idea under Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International. Donato said that the patent's representative claim was simply "drawn to the abstract idea of taking two pictures and using those pictures to enhance each other in some way," which is a practice that has been known " nce the earliest days of the photographic medium." After the plaintiff was given an opportunity to amend his
complaint In legal terminology, a complaint is any formal legal document that sets out the facts and legal reasons (see: cause of action) that the filing party or parties (the plaintiff(s)) believes are sufficient to support a claim against the party ...
, Donato again ruled that the patent was invalid. The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld Donato's ruling in a 2-1 decision. On August 26, 2020, Donato granted 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 par ...
to eight states and four school districts that had sued to prevent the United States Department of Education and the United States Secretary of Education from implementing a rule imposing conditions on how funds allocated under the CARES Act would be shared between public and private schools. The rule allocated funds based on a school's total enrollment, rather than on the number of low-income students. It was controversial due to arguments that it diverted relief funds for the COVID-19 pandemic from public schools to private schools. Donato blocked the Department of Education and Secretary Betsy DeVos from enforcing this rule, saying their arguments in favor of it were a form of "'interpretive jiggery-pokery' in the extreme" (quoting Justice
Antonin Scalia Antonin Gregory Scalia (; March 11, 1936 – February 13, 2016) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016. He was described as the intellectu ...
's dissent in
King v. Burwell ''King v. Burwell'', 576 U.S. 473 (2015), was a 6–3 decision by the Supreme Court of the United States interpreting provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Court's decision upheld, as consistent with the statute, ...
). In February 2021, Donato approved a $650 million settlement between Facebook and a class of plaintiffs suing under the Illinois
Biometric Information Privacy Act Illinois set forth the Biometric Information Privacy Act on October 3, 2008, in an effort to regulate the collection, use, and handling of biometric identifiers and information by private entities. Notably, the Act does not apply to government en ...
. Donato had previously rejected the settlement when it was worth only $550 million, and praised the revised settlement as "a major win for consumers in the hotly contested area of digital privacy." Two class members appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which affirmed Donato's approval of the settlement on March 17, 2022. Also in February 2021, Donato sentenced former
California State Assemblyman The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature, the upper house being the California State Senate. The Assembly convenes, along with the State Senate, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The Ass ...
Terrence Goggin to one year and one day in prison for money laundering, and ordered Goggin to pay $685,000 in restitution for his victims.


References


Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Donato, James 1960 births Living people American people of Italian descent California lawyers Harvard University alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California Law in the San Francisco Bay Area People from Pasadena, California Stanford Law School alumni United States district court judges appointed by Barack Obama University of California, Berkeley alumni 21st-century American judges People associated with Shearman & Sterling People associated with Morrison & Foerster