Senate confirms two Californians as federal judges, adding to record numbers of Blacks, women, Latinos

David Lightman, The Sacramento Bee on Dec 24, 2024

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The U.S. Senate confirmed Judges Benjamin Cheeks and Serena Murillo to fill U.S. District Court vacancies in California in what was expected to be its final judicial votes this year.

The confirmations help establish new records for Black, Latino, women and other minority judges.

Cheeks is the 63rd Black judge named by President Joe Biden, according to the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a record for any president. Murillo is the 150th woman, also a new high. Also a record is the 39 Latino judges Biden has appointed. He has appointed a total of 235 judges during his nearly four years in office.

Cheeks was approved Friday as a judge for the Southern District of California by a 49 to 47 vote.

Murillo was confirmed the same day as a judge for the Central District of California, also by a 49-47 vote. Both votes were party line votes, as no Republicans backed either nominee.

The confirmations brought to 35 the number of California federal judges nominated by President Joe Biden and confirmed since he took office nearly four years ago.

Cheeks and Murillo “have deep roots in the Southern California legal community, and their extensive litigation and judicial experience will serve them well on the federal bench,” said Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which holds hearings on judicial nominations.

Soon after taking office in 2021, Padilla established a Judicial Evaluation Commission. It included a majority of attorneys of color and women, to consider candidates for federal judicial vacancies in California.

Since July, Cheeks has been a U.S. magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. Before that, he was a criminal defense attorney in San Diego. He has also been an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of California.

He received his law degree from the American University, Washington College of Law in 2003 and his B.A. from the University of Miami, Florida in 2000.

Murillo has been a Los Angeles Superior Court judge since 2015. She was a deputy district attorney in the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office from 1997 to 2014.

As a Superior Court judge, Murillo presides over felony trials in the criminal division and has worked in the court’s appellate and civil divisions. She was an associate justice pro tem on the California Court of Appeals in the second appellate district from 2018 to 2019.

The daughter of a Mexican-American farmworker and a school teacher, Murillo received her law degree from Loyola Law School in 1996 and her B.A. from the University of California, San Diego in 1993.

The Southern District of California covers San Diego and Imperial Counties. The Central District includes courthouses in Los Angeles, Santa Ana and Riverside.

The Senate has been scrambling to confirm judges for months. A simple majority is needed to confirm, but Republicans will take control of the Senate on Jan. 3 with 53 of the 100 seats. The vote on Murillo on Friday was the last on a judge before the Senate left early Saturday, probably for the year.

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