A daughter of the San Joaquin Valley should be the newest federal court judge in Fresno
Now here is an easy decision for both Republicans and Democrats in Washington, D.C. to agree on: Ana de Alba should be approved by the U.S. Senate as the newest judge to the federal court in Fresno.
While not a household name, de Alba has a personal history that is reflective of the Latino experience for many in the central San Joaquin Valley.
She grew up in a farm-worker family in Dos Palos, the only girl contending with three older brothers. Together with their parents, they lived in a 500-square-foot home. De Alba slept on the floor; she did not get a bed of her own until she was 15.
Despite such a humble childhood, de Alba graduated from Dos Palos High School in 1998 and then went to UC Berkeley. There, she earned both a bachelor’s degree and a law degree.
After law school, she returned to Fresno and went to work for the local legal firm of Lang, Richert & Patch, specializing in employment, business, tort, and construction litigation.
In 2018, then-Gov. Jerry Brown appointed her to the Fresno County Superior Court.
“Doing farm work as a kid, I always wanted to become a lawyer because I always saw unfair treatment in the fields,” said de Alba in a 2018 interview with Juan Esparza Loera, editor of The Bee’s bilingual publication, Vida en el Valle.
President Biden has made diversifying the federal judiciary a key goal of his presidency. According to the Ethics and Public Policy Center, which has tracked his nominations, Biden has made good on that promise in his first year. Of Biden’s 40 nominees, 75% are women, nearly 65% are people of color, and nearly 30% have experience as public defenders, Bloomberg Law reported, citing research by the Alliance for Justice.
Senate review
The first test for de Alba will come at the Senate Judiciary Committee, which reviews all nominations. She already has supporters on the committee in California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla, who issued a joint statement backing her.
If de Alba clears the committee, the full Senate then votes on her nomination. If it approves, she will take her seat on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. The court hears all federal legal matters in the Central Valley, from the Oregon border on the north to Kern County on the south.
De Alba would be the first Latina judge on the Eastern District court and the first Hispanic judge on the federal bench in Fresno.
Fresno court backlog
Her nomination comes as Biden and the Senate try to fill judicial vacancies on the Eastern District court, which has been burdened with a backlog of cases.
The massive Eastern District of California is made up of almost 8 million residents and encompasses six large urban areas: Sacramento, Fresno, Bakersfield, Stockton, Vallejo, and Fairfield.
In March 2021, there were only six active judge positions to serve residents in the region. That dropped to four judges as two vacancies opened up. The shortage of judges, coupled with the high caseload, became so dire in Fresno last year that Judge Dale A. Drozd called it “unsustainable.”
As of last November, Drozd had a caseload of 1,305 civil cases and more than 745 criminal defendants, court records showed. Civil proceedings had to be suspended until more judges could be seated.
Some help already has arrived: former U.S. Magistrate Judge Jennifer L. Thurston of Bakersfield was approved late last year for a seat on the Fresno court.
As a true daughter of the San Joaquin Valley, de Alba would bring a valuable perspective to the bench. The Senate Judiciary Committee should waste no time in taking up de Alba’s nomination and approving her, and the full Senate should ratify her without delay.