A U.S. district court / Established 1966

U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

California · A federal trial court, where federal civil and criminal cases are first heard. Appeals go to the Ninth Circuit.

U.S. District Court for the Central District of California is a United States district court, a federal trial court where most federal civil and criminal cases are first heard. It lies within the Ninth Circuit, which reviews its decisions on appeal. This page lists every judge to serve on the court, current and former, with who appointed them and whom they succeeded.

101

Judges in history

Currently serving

Seats over time

44 D / 45 R / 12 other

Appointing party · all history

Party letters here are the appointing president’s, never a judge’s own: D Democratic, R Republican, N pre-modern-party era (Federalist, Whig, and other early parties); “–” means no recorded party. Counts cover the court’s entire history.

Judges in active service

Senior judges

Still members of the court: senior judges have stepped back from a full docket but continue to hear cases.

Seats over time

Each band is one judgeship, from the court’s founding to today. A segment’s width is the holder’s tenure; its color is the appointing president’s party. Gaps are vacancies.

Michael Walter Fitzgerald (current) · Percy Anderson (current) · Andre Birotte Jr. (current) · George H. Wu (current) · Anne Hwang (current) · Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. (current) · Consuelo Bland Marshall (current) · Valerie Baker Fairbank (current) · Kenly Kiya Kato (current) · Cormac J. Carney (current) · Serena Raquel Murillo (current) · Christina A. Snyder (current) · Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong (current) · Fernando Manzano Olguin (current) · Hernán Diego Vera (current) · John William Holcomb (current) · Sherilyn Peace Garnett (current) · John F. Walter (current) · Josephine L. Staton (current) · Virginia A. Phillips (current) · Wesley Liu Hsu (current) · David O. Carter (current) · Terry J. Hatter Jr. (current) · Cynthia Valenzuela Dixon (current) · Robert Gary Klausner (current) · Otis D. Wright II (current) · Stephen Victor Wilson (current) · Fred Wallace Slaughter (current) · James V. Selna (current) · Sunshine Suzanne Sykes (current) · Dolly Maizie Gee (current) · John Arnold Kronstadt (current) · Monica Ramirez Almadani (current) · Fernando Lazaro Aenlle-Rocha (current) · Jesus Gilberto Bernal (current) · Mark Christopher Scarsi (current) · Dale S. Fischer (current) · Michelle Williams Court (current) · Manuel Lawrence Real · Robert Joseph Kelleher

Former judges

Judge	Appointed by	Years
Beverly Reid O'Connell	Obama (D)	2013–2017
Jacqueline Hong-Ngoc Nguyen	Obama (D)	2009–2012
Philip S. Gutierrez	G.W. Bush (R)	2007–2024
Andrew J. Guilford	G.W. Bush (R)	2006–2020
Stephen G. Larson	G.W. Bush (R)	2006–2009
George P. Schiavelli	G.W. Bush (R)	2004–2008
S. James Otero	G.W. Bush (R)	2003–2020
Florence-Marie Cooper	Clinton (D)	1999–2010
Gary Allen Feess	Clinton (D)	1999–2015
Nora Margaret Manella	Clinton (D)	1998–2006
A. Howard Matz	Clinton (D)	1998–2013
Carlos R. Moreno	Clinton (D)	1998–2001
Margaret M. Morrow	Clinton (D)	1998–2016
Dean D. Pregerson	Clinton (D)	1996–2025
George H. King	Clinton (D)	1995–2017
Kim McLane Wardlaw	Clinton (D)	1995–1998
Audrey B. Collins	Clinton (D)	1994–2014
Richard A. Paez	Clinton (D)	1994–2000
Robert J. Timlin	Clinton (D)	1994–2017
Lourdes Gillespie Baird	G.H.W. Bush (R)	1992–2005
Linda Hodge McLaughlin	G.H.W. Bush (R)	1992–1999
Gary L. Taylor	G.H.W. Bush (R)	1990–2005
Robert C. Bonner	G.H.W. Bush (R)	1989–1990
Ronald S. W. Lew	Reagan (R)	1987–2023
John G. Davies	Reagan (R)	1986–1998
Ferdinand Francis Fernandez	Reagan (R)	1985–1989
John Spencer Letts	Reagan (R)	1985–2014
Dickran M. Tevrizian Jr.	Reagan (R)	1985–2007
Harry Lindley Hupp	Reagan (R)	1984–2004
James M. Ideman	Reagan (R)	1984–1998
William Duffy Keller	Reagan (R)	1984–2025
William J. Rea	Reagan (R)	1984–2005
Alicemarie Huber Stotler	Reagan (R)	1984–2014
Pamela Ann Rymer	Reagan (R)	1983–1989
Richard Arthur Gadbois Jr.	Reagan (R)	1982–1996
Edward Rafeedie	Reagan (R)	1982–2008
Cynthia Holcomb Hall	Reagan (R)	1981–1984
David Vreeland Kenyon	Carter (D)	1980–1997
Atsushi Wallace Tashima	Carter (D)	1980–1996
Mariana R. Pfaelzer	Carter (D)	1978–2015
Robert Mitsuhiro Takasugi	Ford (R)	1976–2009
Laughlin Edward Waters Sr.	Ford (R)	1976–2002
Robert Firth	Nixon (R)	1974–1984
William Matthew Byrne Jr.	Nixon (R)	1971–2006
Malcolm Millar Lucas	Nixon (R)	1971–1984
Lawrence Tupper Lydick	Nixon (R)	1971–1995
Robert Joseph Kelleher	Nixon (R)	1970–2012
David Welford Williams	Nixon (R)	1969–2000
Harry Pregerson	L.B. Johnson (D)	1967–1979
William Matthew Byrne Sr.	Reassigned	1966–1974
Charles Hardy Carr	Reassigned	1966–1976
Thurmond Clarke	Reassigned	1966–1971
Elisha Avery Crary	Reassigned	1966–1978
Jesse William Curtis Jr.	Reassigned	1966–1990
Warren John Ferguson	L.B. Johnson (D)	1966–1979
William Percival Gray	Reassigned	1966–1992
Peirson Mitchell Hall	Reassigned	1966–1979
A. Andrew Hauk	Reassigned	1966–2004
Irving Hill	Reassigned	1966–1998
Manuel Lawrence Real	L.B. Johnson (D)	1966–2019
Albert Lee Stephens Jr.	Reassigned	1966–2001
Francis C. Whelan	Reassigned	1966–1991
Leon Rene Yankwich	Reassigned	1966–1975

Magistrate judges

Appointed by the judges of this district to renewable 8-year terms, not nominated by the president or confirmed by the Senate. They handle pretrial matters, misdemeanors, and many civil cases by consent.

Magistrate judge	Years
Pedro V. Castillo	2020–present
Patricia A. Donahue	2020–present
Maria A. Audero	2018–present
Autumn D. Spaeth	2018–present
John D. Early	2017–present
Hemant H. Kewalramani	2017–present
Steve Kim	2016–present
Alexander F. MacKinnon	2015–present
Rozella A. Oliver	2015–present
Karen E. Scott	2015–present
Gail J. Standish	2015–present
Karen L. Stevenson	2015–present
Kenly Kiya Kato	2014–present
Louise A. Lamothe	2014–present
Douglas F. McCormick	2013–present
Alka Sagar	2013–present
Sheri N. Pym	2011–present
Jean P. Rosenbluth	2011–present
Michael R. Wilner	2011–present
John E. McDermott	2009–present
Alicia G. Rosenberg	2007–present
Jacqueline Chooljian	2006–present
Frederick F. Mumm	2006–present
Paul L. Abrams	2002–present
Suzanne H. Segal	2002–present
Patrick J. Walsh	2001–present
Charles F. Eick	1988–present
Vijay C Gandhi	2010–2018
David T Bristow	2009–2017
Oswald Parada	2006–2014
Rita Coyne Federman	2004–2013
Marc L Goldman	2001–2013
Victor B Kenton	2001–2015
Jeffrey W. Johnson	1999–2009
Ann I. Jones	1997–2001
Margaret A Nagle	1997–2015
Ralph Zarefsky	1997–2015
Arthur Nakazato	1996–2016
Carla M Woehrle	1996–2016
Andrew J Wistrich	1994–2018
Stephen J Hillman	1992–2015
Victor E. Bianchini	1974–1982

Bankruptcy court

U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California

27 currently serving · 30 in history

Practicing before this court

The rules that govern a case here (the C.D. California’s local rules, standing orders, and each judge’s own procedures) live on the court’s official site. Direct links:

Links to the court’s own site, verified 2026-07-05. Rules change. Confirm against the court’s current posting before filing.

How a judge gets here. Each judge is nominated by a president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, then holds a numbered seat, for life, until they take senior status, or until they leave the bench. Open any judge to see who appointed them, how the Senate voted, and whom they succeeded, a chain that runs back to 1966. This court is also served by magistrate judges, listed above, whom the district’s own judges appoint. Read more on how federal judges are appointed.

Source: FJC Biographical Directory and CourtListener / Free Law Project (bulk data). Data as of 2026-08-10 (FJC); magistrates 2026-03-31 (CourtListener bulk snapshot). Verify against the primary source before relying.