Richard Gus Seeborg (born November 4, 1956) is the
chief United States district judge of the
United States District Court for the Northern District of California. He formerly served as a
United States magistrate judge
In United States federal courts, magistrate judges are judges appointed to assist U.S. district court judges in the performance of their duties. Magistrate judges generally oversee first appearances of criminal defendants, set bail, and conduc ...
in the same district.
Early life and education
Born in
Landstuhl
Landstuhl () is a town in the Kaiserslautern district of Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany. It is the seat of ''Verbandsgemeinde Landstuhl'', a kind of "collective municipality." Landstuhl is situated on the north-west edge of the Palatinate F ...
, Germany, Seeborg earned 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 ...
in history ''
summa cum laude'' from
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
in May 1978 and then earned a
Juris Doctor from
Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...
in 1981.
From 1981 to 1982, Seeborg served as a
law clerk to judge
John H. Pratt of the
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Professional career
In 1982, Seeborg joined the law firm of Morrison & Foerster.[ He became a partner with the firm in 1987.][ In 1991, Seeborg left Morrison & Foerster to become an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of California in ]San Jose, California
San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popu ...
.[ He served in that post until 1998, when he returned to Morrison & Foerster, working as a partner and focusing on a litigation practice in the fields of securities, intellectual property and general commercial matters.]
Work as a magistrate judge
On February 9, 2001, Seeborg became a United States magistrate judge for the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.
Federal judicial service
On August 7, 2009, 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 Seeborg to be a United States district judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.[President Obama Nominates Edward Milton Chen, Dolly Gee and Richard Seeborg to Serve on the District Court Bench]
, ''whitehouse.gov
whitehouse.gov (also simply known as wh.gov) is the official website of the White House and is managed by the Office of Digital Strategy. It was launched on July 29, 1994 by the Clinton administration.
The content of the website is in the ...
'' (August 7, 2009). On October 15, 2009, the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary
The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the Department of Justice (DOJ), consider executive and judicial nominations ...
voted to send Seeborg's nomination to the full Senate.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 ...
.
Notable rulings
On March 6, 2019 Seeborg ruled that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross
Wilbur Louis Ross Jr. (born November 28, 1937) is an American businessman who served as the 39th United States Secretary of Commerce from 2017 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, Ross was previously chairman and chief executive officer ...
could not add a question about citizenship to the 2020 United States Census
The United States census of 2020 was the twenty-fourth decennial United States census. Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2020. Other than a pilot study during the 2000 census, this was the first U.S. census to of ...
.
On April 8, 2019 Seeborg ruled that non-Mexican asylum seekers did not have to stay in Mexico while awaiting their court proceedings.
Personal
Seeborg resides in San Francisco, California
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 17th ...
.[
]
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Seeborg, Richard G.
1956 births
Living people
20th-century American lawyers
21st-century American judges
21st-century American lawyers
Assistant United States Attorneys
California lawyers
Columbia Law School alumni
German emigrants to the United States
Judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California
People associated with Morrison & Foerster
People from Kaiserslautern (district)
United States district court judges appointed by Barack Obama
United States magistrate judges
Yale University alumni