William H Orrick III

Background

Orrick was born in San Francisco, California on May 15, 1953. He received his Bachelor of Arts cum laude, from Yale University in 1976. He received his Juris Doctor cum laude, from Boston College Law School in 1979. After graduating, he worked for the Georgia Legal Services Program from 1979 to 1984. He joined the San Francisco law firm of Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass LLP in 1984 and continued there for twenty five years, becoming a partner in 1988. From June 2009 to June 2010, he served as counselor to the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice. From 2010 to 2012, he served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Division. He briefly rejoined Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass LLP as special counsel, before accepting appointment to District Court.

His father, William H. Orrick, Jr., was a United States District Judge for the Northern District of California and served as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division in the Kennedy Administration. His uncle, Andrew Downey Orrick, was acting Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in San Francisco.

Federal judicial service

On June 11, 2012, President Obama 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 took senior status on December 31, 2011. The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on his nomination on July 11, 2012, and reported it to the floor on August 2, 2012. On January 2, 2013, his nomination was returned to the President, due to the adjournment sine die of the Senate. On 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 vote of 11 ayes to 7 nays, mostly along party lines, except that Republican Senator Jeff Flake voted aye. The U.S. Senate confirmed his nomination on May 15, 2013, by a vote of 56 ayes to 41 nays. He received his commission on May 16, 2013.

Notable cases

On July 31, 2015, Orrick blocked the release of videos of Planned Parenthood, granting the injunction requested by the National Abortion Federation. Because The Center for Medical Progress allegedly illegally recorded undercover videos that plantiffs claimed were heavily edited to purport to show that Planned Parenthood had been inappropriately selling fetal tissue, Orrick issued a restraining order. He said that he reached his decision due to concerns over the physical safety of the executive leadership of the National Abortion Federation. Orrick wrote, “NAF would be likely to suffer irreparable injury, absent an ex parte temporary restraining order, in the form of harassment, intimidation, violence, invasion of privacy, and injury to reputation, and the requested relief is in the public interest.” He scheduled a contempt hearing for June 14, 2017, for the defendants' attorneys, due to a violation of his restraining order.

On April 25, 2017, Orrick blocked the Trump administration's Executive Order 13768 to withhold funding from sanctuary cities that limit cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities, saying Trump had no authority to attach new conditions to federal spending.

On June 9, 2017, during a segment of Tucker Carlson Tonight , David Daleiden alleged that Judge Orrick had lied about his close association with a Planned Parenthood group during his 2013 U.S. Senate confirmation hearing.

Campaign contributions

According to the Public Citizen, a non-profit, consumer rights advocacy group, William H. Orrick III, who was employed by the law firm Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass, raised at least $200,000 for Barack Obama and donated $30,800 to committees supporting him.