James Donato

See also: 2019–2021 Department of Homeland Security appointment disputes

On January 8, 2021, Donato issued an order blocking the implementation of a rule issued by the United States Department of Homeland Security and United States Department of Justice that would have created new restrictions for those seeking asylum in the United States. Donato ruled that purported Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf lacked authority to impose the rule because he had not been properly appointed to his position. Donato emphasized that he was the fifth federal judge to find that Wolf's appointment was unlawful and criticized the government for recycling the same arguments it had used to unsuccessfully defend Wolf's appointment in the past, writing: "In effect, the government keeps crashing the same car into a gate, hoping that someday it might break through." ^{[8] [9] [10]}

Wolf resigned his post three days after Donato's ruling—and five days after the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol—saying his action was "warranted by recent events, including the ongoing and meritless court rulings regarding the validity of my authority as Acting secretary." ^[11]

Other notable cases

In May 2020, Donato ruled that a patent for “Digital Cameras Using Multiple Sensors with Multiple Lenses" was invalid because it was directed at an abstract idea under Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International. Donato said that the patent's representative claim was simply "drawn to the abstract idea of taking two pictures and using those pictures to enhance each other in some way," which is a practice that has been known "[s]ince the earliest days of the photographic medium." ^[12] After the plaintiff was given an opportunity to amend his complaint, Donato again ruled that the patent was invalid. ^[13] The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld Donato's ruling in a 2-1 decision. ^[14]

On August 26, 2020, Donato granted a preliminary injunction to eight states and four school districts that had sued to prevent the United States Department of Education and the United States Secretary of Education from implementing a rule imposing conditions on how funds allocated under the CARES Act would be shared between public and private schools. The rule allocated funds based on a school's total enrollment, rather than on the number of low-income students. ^[15] It was controversial due to arguments that it diverted relief funds for the COVID-19 pandemic from public schools to private schools. ^{[16] [17]} Donato blocked the Department of Education and Secretary Betsy DeVos from enforcing this rule, saying their arguments in favor of it were a form of "'interpretive jiggery-pokery' in the extreme" (quoting Justice Antonin Scalia's dissent in King v. Burwell). ^{[15] [18]}

In February 2021, Donato approved a $650 million settlement between Facebook and a class of plaintiffs suing under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. Donato had previously rejected the settlement when it was worth only $550 million, and praised the revised settlement as "a major win for consumers in the hotly contested area of digital privacy." ^{[19] [20]} Two class members appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which affirmed Donato's approval of the settlement on March 17, 2022. ^[21]

Also in February 2021, Donato sentenced former California State Assemblyman Terrence Goggin to one year and one day in prison for money laundering, and ordered Goggin to pay $685,000 in restitution for his victims. ^{[22] [23] [24]}

On February 28, 2024, Donato ruled that California's permanent prohibition of individuals who have had their convictions vacated, set aside, or dismissed, from possessing firearms violated the Second Amendment as applied to the individual Plaintiffs. ^[25]

References

1. "Questionnaire for Judicial Nominees" (PDF). United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. September 11, 2013.
2. "Attorney James Donato – Lawyer in Palo Alto CA". www.lawyercentral.com. Archived from the original on November 6, 2018. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
3. "Senate Judiciary Committee Nomination Questionnaire" (PDF). Retrieved July 25, 2013.
4. "President Obama Announces Intent to Nominate Three to Serve on the United States District Court". whitehouse.gov . June 20, 2013 – via National Archives.
5. James Donato at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges , a publication of the Federal Judicial Center .
6. "On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Nomination of James Donato, of California, to be U.S. District Judge)". www.senate.gov.
7. "On the Nomination (Confirmation James Donato, of California, to be U.S. District Judge for the Northern District)". www.senate.gov.
8. Montoya-Galvez, Camilo (January 9, 2021). "Judge blocks wide-ranging asylum limits, finding DHS chief did not have authority to issue them". CBS News.
9. Jordan, Miriam (January 8, 2021). "A judge has blocked Trump's sweeping restrictions on asylum applications". New York Times.
10. "Pangea Legal Services v. U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security". Google Scholar. January 8, 2021.
11. Kanno-Youngs, Zolan (January 11, 2021). "Chad Wolf has resigned as acting secretary for the Homeland Security Department". New York Times.
12. "Yu v. Apple (N.D. Cal. July 2, 2019)" (PDF).
13. Bakar, Vid R. (July 9, 2021). "Litigators Take Note – Yu v. Apple is Not Just About Subject Matter Eligibility of Patents". National Law Review. XII.
14. "Yu v. Apple (Fed. Cir. 2021)" (PDF).
15. "Michigan v. Devos" (PDF). August 26, 2020.
16. Hutchinson, Bill (July 22, 2020). "NAACP sues Betsy DeVos over COVID-19 aid rule, claiming it benefits private schools at the expense of public ones". ABC News.
17. Greene, Peter (May 28, 2020). "The Betsy DeVos Reverse Robin Hood Act: What Is The Big Deal?". Forbes.
18. Greene, Peter. "Second Federal Judge Slams DeVos Plan To Send Federal Funds To Private Schools". Forbes.
19. "In re Facebook Biometric Info. Privacy Litig".
20. "Judge Approves Facebook's $650M Privacy Settlement as 'Major Win for Consumers'". Law.com. February 26, 2021.
21. "Facebook Biometric Information Privacy Litigation". Archived from the original on March 19, 2022. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
22. "Former State Assemblyman Goggins Sentenced To Prison For Money Laundering Scheme". CBS SF BayArea. February 10, 2021.
23. "Ex-California Assemblyman Sentenced for Money Laundering". U.S. News. February 10, 2021.
24. "Former California State Assemblyman Sentenced To Prison For Money Laundering In Fraud Scheme Involving Bart Coffee Shops". United States Department of Justice. February 10, 2021.
25. "Linton v. Bonta Ruling" (PDF). CourtListener. February 28, 2024. Retrieved February 28, 2024.

Sources

• James Donato at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges , a publication of the Federal Judicial Center .
• James Donato at Ballotpedia

James Donato
Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California
Incumbent
Assumed office February 26, 2014

Legal offices
Preceded by James Ware	Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California 2014–present	Incumbent