John Joseph Tuchi (born May 18, 1964) is an American lawyer who 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 District of Arizona The United States District Court for the District of Arizona (in case citations, D. Ariz.) is the U.S. district court that covers the state of Arizona. It is under the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The District was est ...

Early life and education

Tuchi was born in 1964 in Colver, Pennsylvania. He studied

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State Coll ...

, graduating in 1987 with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree. He received a

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast t ...

degree from the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

in 1989. Tuchi was a project engineer at the Hughes Aircraft Company from 1987 to 1989, then worked as a consultant for

Arthur Andersen Arthur Andersen was an American accounting firm based in Chicago that provided auditing, tax advising, consulting and other professional services to large corporations. By 2001, it had become one of the world's largest multinational corporat ...

from 1989 to 1991. He then attended Arizona State University's College of Law (now

Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law The Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law (ASU Law) is one of the professional graduate schools at Arizona State University in Phoenix, Arizona. The school is located in the Beus Center for Law and Society on ASU's downtown Phoenix campus. The law ...

), where he was editor-in-chief of the '' Arizona State Law Journal''. He graduated in 1994 with a Juris Doctor '' magna cum laude'' and

Order of the Coif The Order of the Coif is an honor society for United States law school graduates. The name is a reference to the ancient English order of advocates, the serjeants-at-law, whose courtroom attire included a coif—a white lawn or silk skullcap, whi ...

membership.

Career

Tuchi served as a law clerk to Judge

William Canby William Cameron Canby Jr. (born May 22, 1931) is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, sitting in Phoenix, Arizona. As both a professor at Arizona State University College of Law and ...

of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * District ...

from 1994 to 1995. He was in private practice as an associate at the law firm of Brown & Bain (now part of

Perkins Coie Perkins Coie is an American multinational law firm headquartered in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1912, it is recognized as an Am Law 50 firm. It is the largest law firm headquartered in the Pacific Northwest and has 20 offices across the Un ...

) from 1995 to 1998. From 1998 to 2014, Tuchi was an assistant United States attorney for the District of Arizona. He served as Chief of the Criminal Division, from 2006 to 2009, as Senior Litigation Counsel and Tribal Liaison from 2009 to 2012, interim

United States attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal ...

in 2012 and later served as chief assistant United States attorney.

Federal judicial service

On September 19, 2013, 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, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

nominated Tuchi to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Arizona, to the seat vacated by Judge Roslyn O. Silver, 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 September 3, 2013. Tuchi was one of four Arizona judicial nominees announced by Obama that day who were chosen in consultation with Republican Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake. On February 27, 2014 his nomination was reported out of the committee. On May 12, 2014 Senate Majority Leader

Harry Reid Harry Mason Reid Jr. (; December 2, 1939 – December 28, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Nevada from 1987 to 2017. He led the Senate Democratic Caucus from 2005 to 2017 and was the Sena ...

filed for

cloture Cloture (, also ), closure or, informally, a guillotine, is a motion or process in parliamentary procedure aimed at bringing debate to a quick end. The cloture procedure originated in the French National Assembly, from which the name is taken. ' ...

on the nomination. On May 14, 2014, 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 ...

invoked

on his nomination by a 62–35 vote. Later that day, his nomination was confirmed by a 96–0 vote. He received his judicial commission on May 16, 2014.

Notable rulings

* Tuchi was one of the judges who presided over

Kari Lake Kari Ann Lake ( ; born August 23, 1969) is an American former television news anchor who was the Republican nominee in the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election. Beginning her media career in the early 1990s, Lake was the anchor for the Phoeni ...

's challenge of the Arizona gubernatorial election results during the 2022 Midterm elections. Tuchi ruled on December 1, 2022, that Lake's claims that proper election procedures weren't followed, citing insufficient evidence. Attorneys for Lake and GOP Arizona Secretary of State nominee

Mark Finchem Mark William Finchem (born April 24, 1957) is an American far-right politician who served as a member of the Arizona House of Representatives representing District 11 from 2015 to 2023. He is the Arizona coordinator for the Coalition of Weste ...

, but not the candidates themselves, were ordered to pay the county's reasonable attorney's fees, the amount of which is to be determined at a later date. * On July 22, 2023, Tuchi ruled that an Arizona law limiting how close people can get to recording law enforcement is unconstitutional. https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2023-07-22/court-strikes-down-limits-on-filming-of-police-in-arizona

Personal

Tuchi is married to Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Maria del Mar Verdin.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tuchi, John J. 1964 births Living people 21st-century American judges Arizona lawyers Assistant United States Attorneys Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Arizona Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law alumni United States district court judges appointed by Barack Obama University of Arizona alumni West Virginia University alumni