William Alsup

Born in Jackson, Mississippi, Alsup received a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics{{cite news|url=http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/05/17/46581.htm|title=Oracle & Google Debate Road Map|date=May 17, 2012|work=Courthouse News|access-date=June 1, 2012|author=Dotinga, William}} from Mississippi State University in 1967, a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1971, and a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1971.

He was a law clerk to Justice William O. Douglas of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1971 to 1972.{{Cite web|url=http://supremecourthistory.org/pub_journal_samples_05.html|title=Supreme Court Historical Society - Journal of Supreme Court History|website=supremecourthistory.org|access-date=2016-06-22}} Alsup was in private practice in San Francisco, California from 1972 to 1978 and an assistant to the United States Solicitor General in the United States Department of Justice from 1978 to 1980. He returned to private practice in San Francisco from 1980 to 1998 with Morrison & Foerster, when he briefly served as a special counsel in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice in 1998. He was again in private practice in San Francisco from 1998 to 1999.{{Cite web|url=http://www.cand.uscourts.gov/wha|title=Alsup, William [WHA] {{!}} United States District Court, Northern District of California|website=www.cand.uscourts.gov|access-date=2016-06-22}}

On March 24, 1999, President Bill Clinton nominated Alsup to a seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of California vacated by Thelton Henderson. Alsup was confirmed by the United States Senate on July 30, 1999, and received his commission on August 17, 1999. He assumed senior status on January 21, 2021.{{FJC Bio|nid=1390971|inline=yes}}

Alsup presided over the 2012 and 2016 jury trials in Oracle America, Inc. v. Google, Inc.,{{Cite news|url=https://blogs.wsj.com/law/2016/04/01/google-and-oracle-agree-not-to-research-jurors-online-ahead-of-major-trial/|title=Google and Oracle Agree Not to Research Jurors Online Ahead of Major Trial|last=Gershman|first=Jacob|newspaper=Wall Street Journal|date=April 2016 |access-date=2016-06-22}} which concerns the APIs of Java SE and Android. He drew media attention for his familiarity with programming languages, at one point criticizing Oracle counsel David Boies for arguing that the Java function rangeCheck was novel, saying that he had "written blocks of code like rangeCheck a hundred times or more".{{cite web|url=https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/19/16503076/oracle-vs-google-judge-william-alsup-interview-waymo-uber|title=The Judge's Code: Meet the judge who codes — and decides tech's biggest cases|last=Jeong|first=Sarah|authorlink=Sarah Jeong|website=The Verge|date=October 19, 2017|accessdate=April 6, 2021}} Alsup was widely described as having learned Java in order to better understand the case,{{cite magazine | url=https://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/05/google-schmidt-page-damages/ | title=Oracle Goes for Broke in Court Battle With Google | magazine=Wired | date=May 15, 2012 | access-date=June 1, 2012 | author=Garling, Caleb}} although a 2017 profile in The Verge stated that he had not learned a significant amount of Java, but had rather applied his knowledge as a longtime hobbyist BASIC programmer. The Federal Circuit overturned his determination that the Java API was not copyrightable.{{cite law| url=http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/opinions-orders/13-1021.Opinion.5-7-2014.1.PDF | title=Oracle America, Inc. v. Google, Inc. | work=Fed Cir| date=May 9, 2014 | accessdate=May 9, 2014 | author=Fed Cir. }} In 2021 the U.S. Supreme Court made no decision on copyrightability but decided that, even if copyright existed, Google's use of the API had been fair use and so not unlawful.{{cite web |last1=Masnick |first1=Mike |title=Supreme Court Sides With Google In Decade-Long Fight Over API Copyright; Google's Copying Of Java API Is Fair Use |url=https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210405/09243546552/supreme-court-sides-with-google-decade-long-fight-over-api-copyright-googles-copying-java-api-is-fair-use.shtml |website=Techdirt. |access-date=6 April 2021 |date=5 April 2021}}

Alsup was also the presiding judge in what is believed to be the first trial against the U.S. no-fly policy, which is a list of people who cannot use commercial aircraft in the United States. Regarding the removal of people incorrectly included in the list, he ruled that, "[t]he government's administrative remedies fall short of such relief and do not supply sufficient due process."{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-noflylist-ruling-idUSBREA0D1MC20140114|title=U.S. judge rules against government in no-fly challenge|date=14 January 2017|newspaper=Reuters}}

In August 2020, Judge Alsup sentenced Anthony Levandowski to 18 months in prison for one count of trade secret theft,{{cite news |last1=O'Brien |first1=Sarah |title=Former Uber self-driving car exec sentenced to 18 months in prison |url=https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/04/tech/anthony-levandowski-google-uber-sentencing/index.html |access-date=6 August 2020 |agency=CNN Business |publisher=CNN |date=6 August 2020}} for stealing technology from Google's Waymo to found Otto, a self driving startup, then selling it to Uber six months later for $680 million.{{cite news|last1=Wakabayashi|first1=Daisuke|last2=Isaac|first2=Mike|title=Uber Executive Invokes Fifth Amendment, Seeking to Avoid Potential Charges|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/technology/uber-waymo-levandowski.html|access-date=19 May 2017|work=The New York Times|date=31 March 2017|page=B5}} In May 2017, Judge Alsup had ordered Levandowski to refrain from working on Otto's Lidar and required Uber to disclose its discussions on the technology.{{cite news|last1=Isaac|first1=Mike|title=Uber Engineer Barred From Work on Key Self-Driving Technology, Judge Says|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/15/technology/uber-self-driving-lawsuit-waymo.html|access-date=19 May 2017|work=The New York Times|date=16 May 2017|page=B1}}

{{see also|Regents of University of California v. United States Department of Homeland Security}}

In September 2017, Judge Alsup was assigned four cases by parties suing to halt President Trump's decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program created by Barack Obama.{{cite news|last1=Levine|first1=Dan|title=U.S. judge aims to quickly decide lawsuits over DACA|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/legal-us-usa-immigration-hearing/u-s-judge-aims-to-quickly-decide-lawsuits-over-daca-idUSKCN1BW2WC|access-date=14 January 2018|work=Reuters|date=2017-09-03}} On December 20, the Supreme Court unanimously issued an opinion urging Judge Alsup to consider arguments by the Trump administration that ending DACA was within executive authority and is not reviewable by federal courts.{{cite news|last1=Liptak|first1=Adam|title=Justices Return Dispute over DACA Documents to Lower Court|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/20/us/politics/supreme-court-daca-documents.html|access-date=14 January 2018|work=The New York Times|date=2017-12-20}}

On January 9, 2018, he granted a temporary injunction halting President Trump's rescission of DACA.{{cite news|last1=de Vogue|first1=Arienne|title=Judge blocks Trump administration plan to roll back DACA|url=http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/09/politics/california-judge-daca-applications/index.html|access-date=14 January 2018|publisher=CNN|date=2018-01-10}}

{{see also|ExxonMobil climate change controversy}}

On July 27, 2018, Judge Alsup dismissed a lawsuit targeting ExxonMobil on the basis that two California cities, San Francisco and Oakland, could not prove the energy company was responsible for climate change in the state.{{cite news|title=Case No. C 17-06011/06012 WHA|url=http://eidclimate.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/SF.Oak_Alsup-Order-Granting-Dismissal-on-PJ-charges.pdf|access-date=31 July 2018|publisher=United States District Court|date=2018-07-27}}

On November 17, 2022, Alsup ruled in favor of 200,000 student loan borrowers in a class action lawsuit who claim that they were defrauded by for-profit colleges/universities. Alsup calls the program's backlog "an impossible quagmire... As of now, approximately 443,000 borrowers have pending borrower-defense applications. That is a staggering number. If, hypothetically, the Department's Borrower Defense Unit had all 33 of its claim adjudicators working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year (no holidays or vacation), with each claim adjudicator processing two claims per day, it would take the Department more than twenty-five years to get through the backlog." Alsup's ruling was based on borrower defense, which allows students to have their loans forgiven if the university lies to them about their job prospects, credit transferability or likely salary after graduation.{{Cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2022/11/17/1135615520/student-loan-forgiveness-borrower-defense|title=Judge rules to erase the student loans of 200K borrowers who say they were ripped off|website=NPR|date=November 17, 2022|access-date=November 18, 2022}}

{{Main|American Federation of Government Employees v. Office of Personnel Management}}

On February 27, 2025, Alsup ruled that mass firings ordered by the Office of Personnel Management at the behest of Elon Musk's DOGE are likely illegal. The mass firings included employees from the Department of Defense, Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and National Science Foundation. Alsup said:

How could so much of the workforce be amputated, suddenly, overnight? It’s so irregular and so widespread and so aberrant in the history of our country. How could this all happen with each agency deciding on its own to do something so aberrational? ... The Office of Personnel Management does not have any authority whatsoever, under any statute in the history of the universe, to hire and fire employees at another agency. They can hire and fire their own employees.{{Cite news|url=https://apnews.com/article/trump-federal-employees-firings-a85d1aaf1088e050d39dcf7e3664bb9f|title=Judge finds mass firings of federal probationary workers were likely unlawful|website=AP News|date=February 27, 2025|access-date=February 27, 2025}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/02/27/judge-probationary-federal-employee-firings-lawsuit/|title=Judge blocks Trump administration's mass firings of federal workers|website=Washington Post|date=February 27, 2025|access-date=February 27, 2025}}

Then, on March 13, 2025, Alsup ordered the reinstatement of thousands of employees in six different federal agencies.{{Cite web|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/judge-order-fired-probationary-federal-employees-reinstated/story?id=119759494|title=Judge orders thousands of federal workers reinstated; slams 'sham' government declaration|website=ABC News|date=March 13, 2025|access-date=March 30, 2025}}

Alsup moved to California in the 1970s. He owns a 40-acre ranch in the Sierra Nevada foothills.{{cite news |author=Morris, J. D. |url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/For-PG-E-probation-judge-William-Alsup-16777299.php |title=For PG&E probation judge William Alsup, California's wildfire crisis is personal |work=San Francisco Chronicle |date=January 17, 2022 }} In 2002 he published Missing in the Minarets, a book telling the story of the search for mountaineer Walter A Starr, Jr.{{Cite web |author=O'Grady, John P. |url=http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12200244600|title=Publications: Missing in the Minarets: The Search for Walter A. Starr, Jr. |website=The American Alpine Club|access-date=March 13, 2025 }}{{Cite web |author=Renda, Matthew |url=https://www.courthousenews.com/the-mountains-are-calling-exploring-yosemite-with-a-federal-judge-as-guide/|title=The Mountains Are Calling: Yosemite, With Federal Judge as Guide|website=Courthouse News |date=July 18, 2018}}

• 2013: Tara L. Riedley Barristers Choice Award, Bar Association of San Francisco
• 2013: Award of recognition from Lewis and Clark Law School.{{Cite web |url=http://www.ce9.uscourts.gov/publications/AnnualReport2013.pdf |title=United States Courts for the Ninth Circuit 2013 Annual Report |access-date=2014-12-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161227074638/http://www.ce9.uscourts.gov/publications/AnnualReport2013.pdf |archive-date=2016-12-27 |url-status=dead }}

• List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 4)

{{Reflist}}

• {{FJC Bio|nid=1390971}}

{{s-start}}

{{s-legal}}

{{s-bef|before=Thelton Henderson}}

{{s-ttl|title={{nowrap|Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California}}|years=1999–2021}}

{{s-aft|after=Jacqueline Scott Corley}}

{{s-end}}

{{United States 9th Circuit senior district judges}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alsup, William}}

Category:1945 births

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century American judges

Category:21st-century American judges

Category:Harvard Law School alumni

Category:Harvard Kennedy School alumni

Category:Judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California

Category:Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States

Category:Lawyers from Jackson, Mississippi

Category:Mississippi State University alumni

Category:People associated with Morrison & Foerster

Category:United States district court judges appointed by Bill Clinton