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 condu ...

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 yea ...

in history ''

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...

'' 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 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 l ...

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 ...

in 1981. From 1981 to 1982, Seeborg 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 ...

to judge John H. Pratt of the

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia The United States District Court for the District of Columbia (in case citations, D.D.C.) is a federal district court in the District of Columbia. It also occasionally handles (jointly with the United States District Court for the District ...

Professional career

In 1982, Seeborg joined 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 ...

. He became a partner with the firm in 1987. In 1991, Seeborg left Morrison & Foerster to become an

Assistant United States Attorney An assistant United States attorney (AUSA) is an official career civil service position in the U.S. Department of Justice composed of lawyers working under the U.S. Attorney of each U.S. federal judicial district. They represent the federal go ...

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 popul ...

. 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 (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

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 th ...

'' (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 nomination ...

voted to send Seeborg's nomination to the full Senate. The Senate confirmed Seeborg by unanimous consent on December 24, 2009. He received his commission on January 4, 2010. He became Chief Judge on February 1, 2021 after

Phyllis J. Hamilton Phyllis Jean Hamilton (born 1952) is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Education and career Born in Jacksonville, Illinois, Hamilton received a Bachelor of Ar ...

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 ...

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. 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

* * {{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