Derrick Kahala Watson

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American judge (born 1966)

Not to be confused with the American football player Derrick Deshaun Watson .

Derrick Kahala Watson (born 1966) is an American lawyer who serves as the chief United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii .

A native of Hawaii, he graduated from Harvard University and Harvard Law School before entering private practice in San Francisco . He served as a federal prosecutor for some years in California and then Hawaii, rising to become chief of the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Hawaii. He was appointed to the federal bench in 2013 by President Barack Obama and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate in 2013. Watson is the fourth Native Hawaiian federal judge in U.S. history.

Watson acted against the Trump travel ban in 2017.

Early life and education

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Derrick Kahala Watson was born in 1966, in Honolulu, Hawaii , to a Honolulu police officer and a worker at a local bank. He graduated from the Kamehameha Schools in 1984 and received his Bachelor of Arts , cum laude from Harvard University in 1988.

Watson was the first in his family to graduate college. Watson received his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1991, and was admitted to practice law in California the same year. Barack Obama and Neil M. Gorsuch were members of his graduating class.

Legal career and service in Army Reserves

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He began his career as an associate at the law firm of Landels, Ripley & Diamond in San Francisco, California , where he worked from 1991 to 1995. He served as an assistant United States attorney in the Northern District of California from 1995 to 2000, serving as deputy chief of the Civil Division from 1999 to 2000. In 2000, Watson returned to private practice, joining the law firm of Farella Braun + Martel LLP, where he worked on product liability , toxic tort , and environmental cost recovery litigation. Watson became a partner at the firm in 2003. While in private practice, Watson conducted substantial pro bono work on behalf of the San Francisco Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, he also did pro bono work involving human trafficking and wage and hour claims. Watson served as an assistant United States attorney in the District of Hawaii from 2007 to 2013 and served as chief of the Civil Division from 2009 to 2013. From 1998 to 2006, Watson served in the United States Army Reserve in the Judge Advocate General's Corps , honorably discharged with the rank of captain .

Federal judicial service

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On November 14, 2012, President Barack Obama nominated Watson to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii, to the seat vacated by Judge David Alan Ezra , who assumed senior status on June 27, 2012.

On January 2, 2013, his nomination was returned to the President, due to the _sine die _ adjournment of the Senate. He was renominated to the same office the next day. Watson was rated "well qualified" by a substantial majority of the American Bar Association 's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary . Watson encountered no opposition in the Senate Judiciary Committee , which reported his nomination to the Senate floor on February 14, 2013, by voice vote .

Watson's nomination was confirmed by a 94–0 vote on April 18, 2013. He received his commission on April 23, 2013. Watson is the fourth Native Hawaiian to serve on the federal bench, and the only currently serving Native Hawaiian judge.

Watson became chief judge on November 6, 2022.

Travel ban case

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On March 15, 2017, Watson granted a temporary restraining order blocking President Trump's revised executive order banning entry of nationals of six majority-Muslim countries into the United States from going into effect. Watson held that the order w

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