US Senate confirms Kirk Sherriff as federal judge in Fresno

The Eastern District of California court is back to full strength after the U.S. Senate voted Wednesday to confirm Assistant U.S. Attorney Kirk E. Sherriff for a judicial vacancy in Fresno.

The vote was 54-45, with three Republicans — U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC; Sen. Susan Collins, R-ME, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-AK — joining all the Senate Democrats and independents to support him. Sen. John Barasso, R-WY, did not vote.

Sherriff, a Harvard Law School graduate and veteran prosecutor who has led the Fresno and Bakersfield offices of the U.S. attorney’s office since 2015, drew little opposition during his Senate Judiciary Committee nomination hearing, aside from questions about his small contributions to the ACLU since 2019.

The nominee of President Joe Biden will replace 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Ana I. de Alba, who was elevated to the appellate court after serving about a year as district judge in Fresno.

Eastern District Chief Judge Kimberly J. Mueller said in a statement that she was “delighted” with Sherriff’s confirmation, noting that it was less than three months after de Alba was elevated to the 9th Circuit.

In recent years, the sprawling district, which extends from Kern County to the Oregon border, has waited long stretches of time to get Article III judges confirmed — which has posed problems given that there are only six in the first place.

The average combined civil and criminal caseload for a Fresno district judge is 1,064, among the highest in the nation, according to Clerk of Court Keith Holland.

“Mr. Sherriff is a public servant at heart,” Mueller wrote. “He brings to the court a deep knowledge of the expansive area served by our Fresno courthouse, given his 20-plus years as a federal prosecutor in the Fresno U.S. attorney’s office,” as well as his previous work in civil practice.

Sherriff was a high school teacher in Mississippi before he spent several years as an associate at White & Case LLP. He joined the Eastern District U.S. attorney’s office in 2002.

Mueller already informed Biden that she will take senior status in September, so the president has until then to get another judge in the Eastern District confirmed.

Sherriff, a white male with his long career as a prosecutor, is the sort of safe choice presidents have traditionally made for federal judicial vacancies. Biden has made a point of choosing more diverse candidates, in terms of race, gender and professional experience, but he is getting more cautious as the November elections approach.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Eumi K. Lee, nominated for a vacancy on the Northern District of California court, was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee last month but has not had a floor vote scheduled. She did not get Graham’s support on the judiciary committee and her vote is likely to be closer than Sherriff’s on the Senate floor.

Biden has also nominated San Diego County Superior Court Judge Rebecca S. Kanter, another longtime prosecutor, to fill one of the two vacancies on the Southern District of California court after her colleague on the San Diego County court, former public defender Marian F. Gaston, was not renominated.