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Politics Nov 10, 2023
| Image courtesy of the United States District Court
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Mónica Ramírez Almadani, a Los Angeles-born immigrant rights attorney who led cases against the immigration policies of former President Donald Trump, was confirmed Thursday to a seat on the Central District of California bench.
It was the second confirmation this week by the U.S. Senate of President Joe Biden’s nominations to the Central District.
On Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Kenly Kiya Kato was confirmed to serve as a district judge in Riverside in the court’s Eastern Division.
“We are glad to see the Senate confirm Judge Kato and Ms. Ramírez Almadani, who have demonstrated their unwavering commitment to service and equal justice time and time again and hold strong ties to the Los Angeles legal community,” Sens. Alex Padilla and Laphonza Butler, both California Democrats, said in a statement.
Ramírez Almadani has been the president and CEO of Public Counsel, an organization that provides pro bono legal services to underserved communities, since 2021. Previously, she was a visiting assistant clinical professor of law and co-director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at the UC Irvine School of Law.
Ramírez Almadani has served as a special assistant attorney general for the California Department of Justice and an assistant U.S. attorney for the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. She also held several positions with the U.S. Department of Justice, including deputy chief of staff and senior counsel to the deputy attorney general and counsel to the assistant attorney general for the civil rights division.
Raised in Huntington Park by parents who were immigrants from Mexico, Ramírez Almadani received her undergraduate degree from Harvard University in 2001 and a law degree from Stanford Law School in 2004.
Also born and raised in Los Angeles, Kato has been a magistrate judge since 2014 in the Central District, where she handled a wide variety of civil and criminal cases. In addition to her caseload, Kato is a member of the district’s two collaborative courts, the Conviction and Sentence Alternatives and Substance Abuse Treatment and Reentry Program, which provide a pathway for offenders to attain rehabilitation and become contributing members of the community.
From 1997 to 2003, Kato served in the Federal Public Defender’s Office for the Central District. She entered private practice in 2004, and until her appointment as a magistrate judge in 2014, her practice focused primarily on federal criminal defense work.
Kato’s parents, as children, were among those subjected to internment during World War II. The judge received her undergraduate degree from UCLA in 1993 and her law degree from Harvard Law School in 1996.
“We are delighted that Judge Kato will now be a district judge of this court,” Chief Judge Philip S. Gutierrez of the Central District of California said in a statement. “Judge Kato has been an exceptional magistrate judge for many years, approaching each case with intelligence, integrity and compassion. She will undoubtedly bring the same skills and qualities to the bench as a district judge, and we are lucky to continue to have her as a colleague.”
The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California had 14,572 new case filings in calendar year 2022. Including the appointments of Ramírez Almadani and Kato, the district has 28 judgeships, two of which are currently unfilled.
The Central District of California is comprised of the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. It serves more than 19.2 million people, nearly half the population of the state.
Federal district court judges are nominated by the president, confirmed by the Senate and serve lifetime appointments.
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