Jon S. Tigar

Jon Tigar
Judge of theUnited States District Court for the Northern District of California
Incumbent
Assumed office January 18, 2013
Appointed by	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Saundra Brown Armstrong
Personal details
Born	Jon Steven Tigar 1962 (age 61–62) London,United Kingdom
Education	Williams College(BA) University of California, Berkeley(JD)

Jon Steven Tigar(born 1962) is an American lawyer serving as aUnited States district judgeof theUnited States District Court for the Northern District of California.He was previously a California state court judge on theAlameda County Superior Courtfrom 2002 to 2013.

Early life and education

Tigar was born in 1962 inLondon.He graduated fromWilliams Collegein 1984 with aBachelor of Artsdegree ineconomicsandEnglish literature.He spent two years working as aparalegal,first at Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, and then at the law firm known asAllen Matkins.Tigar then attended theUC Berkeley School of Law,where he was an articles editor of theCalifornia Law Reviewand aresearch assistantto professorMelvin Eisenberg.He graduated in 1989 with aJuris DoctordegreeandOrder of the Coifhonors.

Career

After graduating from law school, Tigar served as a law clerk for JudgeRobert Smith Vanceof theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuitfrom 1989 to 1990.During Tigar's clerkship, Vance was killed by amail bombsent to his home.

From 1990 until 1992, Tigar served as a litigation associate for the law firmMorrison & Foerster.He then served as apublic defenderin San Francisco from 1993 until 1994. Tigar practiced complexcommercial litigation,and became a partner, at the law firmKeker & Van Nestfrom 1994 until 2002. From 2002 to 2013, Tigar served as a judge on the Alameda County Superior Court.

Tigar is an elected member of theAmerican Law Institute,for which he served as an adviser to theRestatement (Third) of Torts: Liability for Economic Lossand now serves in the same capacity on the forthcoming Restatement (Third) of Torts: Defamation and Privacy.Tigar has taught Pretrial Litigation atUC Berkeley School of Law.He previously served as a member of the California Judicial Council's Advisory Committee on Civil Jury Instructions and the Ninth Circuit's Jury Instructions Committee. From 2016 to 2019, he was the Judicial Representative to the Section of Antitrust Law of theAmerican Bar Association.He is a Fellow of theAmerican Bar Foundation.

Federal judicial service

On June 11, 2012, PresidentBarack Obamanominated Tigar to be a judge on theUnited States District Courtfor the Northern District of California, taking the seat vacated by JudgeSaundra Brown Armstrong,who assumedsenior statuson March 23, 2012.TheUnited States Senate Committee on the Judiciaryheld a hearing on his nomination on July 11, 2012, and reported his nomination to the floor on August 2, 2012. The Senate confirmed his nomination byunanimous consenton December 21, 2012. He received his commission on January 18, 2013.

Notable decisions

• On April 2, 2015, Tigar ordered theCalifornia Department of Corrections( "CDCR" ) to provide gender reassignment surgery to a transgender inmate, finding that such surgery was the only adequate medical treatment for the inmate's gender dysphoria.

• Since August 2017, Tigar has presided overPlata v. Newsom,a case concerning the constitutional adequacy of medical care in the California state prison system. On September 27, 2021, Tigar ordered that allCDCRstaff, including medical and custody staff, be vaccinated againstCOVID-19,subject to medical and religious exemption.Tigar found that because the undisputed evidence showed that staff were the means for COVID to enter the prisons, allowing prison employees to remain unvaccinated violated incarcerated persons' Eighth Amendment constitutional rights. On April 25, 2022, the Ninth Circuit vacated Tigar's order, finding that CDCR's refusal to require its custody staff to accept the vaccine did not constitute deliberate indifference.

• On October 4, 2017, in theIn re Wells Fargo & Company Shareholder Derivative Litigation,Tigar allowed a shareholder lawsuit to proceed againstWells Fargo's directors, finding it plausible that they had "consciously disregarded their fiduciary duties despite knowledge regarding [Wells Fargo's] widespread illegal account-creation activities."Financial writer Gretchen Morgenson called the ruling "unusual and welcome" and said it would "resonate among corporate directors."

• On November 19, 2018, Tigar issued anationwide injunctionbarring theTrump administrationfrom enforcing a rule that would deny asylum to anyone who entered the United States somewhere other than at a designated port of entry.Complaining about the ruling, President Trump characterized Tigar as an "Obama judge" —prompting Chief JusticeJohn Robertsto respond, "We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for."The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Tigar's injunction,and the Supreme Court allowed it to remain in place pending appeal.On February 2, 2021, President Biden signed Executive Order 14010 revoking Proclamation 9880 of May 9, 2019 (Addressing Mass Migration Through the Southern Border of the United States),thereby abrogating the rule limiting asylum claims.

• On July 24, 2019, Tigar issued anationwide injunctionthat barred theTrump administrationfrom denying asylum to persons who crossed through but did not apply for asylum in a third country.In August, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found the administration's asylum policy "likely violated federal regulatory law" but narrowed Tigar's injunction to apply only within the Ninth Circuit.On September 9, 2019, Tigar reinstated the nationwide scope of the injunction.The Supreme Court stayed both orders on September 11, 2019, without addressing the legality of the administration's asylum policy.On July 6, 2020, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the injunction blocking the third country asylum bar and upheld the nationwide scope of the injunction.

• On November, 2020, Tigar issued an order enjoining theCalifornia Department of Motor Vehiclesfrom enforcing a ban on personalized license plate configurations it found “offensive to good taste and decency” on the grounds that the regulation violated the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.Tigar wrote that the DMV's “good taste and decency” standard created “a facial distinction between societally favored and disfavored ideas” and that “the public expression of ideas may not be prohibited merely because the ideas are themselves offensive to some of their hearers.”

External links

• Jon S. Tigarat theBiographical Directory of Federal Judges,a publication of theFederal Judicial Center.
• Jon S. TigaratBallotpedia