Noël Wise

Noël Wise
Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California
Incumbent
Assumed office
December 19, 2024
Appointed byJoe Biden
Preceded byEdward Davila
Judge of the Alameda County Superior Court
In office
December 30, 2014[1] – December 19, 2024
Appointed byJerry Brown
Preceded byCarrie McIntyre Panetta
Personal details
Born
Noël Streissguth

1968 (age 55–56)
Cherry Hill, New Jersey, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic[2]
EducationUniversity of Nevada, Las Vegas (BA)
Nova Southeastern University Law School (JD)
Stanford University (JSM)

Noël Wise (born 1968)[3] is an American lawyer who has served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California since 2024. She previously served as a judge of the Alameda County Superior Court from 2014 to 2024.

Education

Wise earned a Bachelor of Science from University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 1989, a Juris Doctor, magna cum laude from Nova Southeastern University Law School in 1993 and a Juris Scientiae Magister from Stanford Law School in 2002.[4]

Career

Wise served as a law clerk for Justice Harry Lee Anstead on the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeals from 1993 to 1994. She served as a trial attorney in the United States Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division in Washington, D.C. from 1994 to 2002, where she entered through the Honors Program. From 1997 to 1998, she was detailed to serve as an assistant United States attorney in the U.S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California. From 2002 to 2004, Wise was of counsel at Stoel Rives in San Francisco. From 2004 to 2006, she worked as in-house counsel for Pacific Gas and Electric Company in San Francisco from 2004 to 2006. From 2006 to 2014, she was a partner at Wise Gleicher in Alameda, California.[4] On November 12, 2014, Governor Jerry Brown appointed Wise to serve as a judge of the Alameda County Superior Court to fill the vacancy left by the appointment of Judge Carrie McIntyre Panetta to a different court.[2] Wise was a supervising judge from 2019 to 2024. From 2021 to 2022, she served as a judge pro tem for the California Second District Court of Appeal.[4]

Federal judicial service

On June 12, 2024, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Wise to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. On June 13, 2024, her nomination was sent to the Senate. President Biden nominated Wise to the seat being vacated by Judge Edward Davila, who announced his intent to assume senior status upon confirmation of a successor.[5] On July 10, 2024, a hearing on her nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee.[6] During her confirmation hearing, she was questioned by Republican senators over several magazine articles she had written while serving as a judge. In a 2017 article for Time magazine, Wise questioned how laws that permit or prohibit conduct based on whether someone is a man or a woman should be applied to the approximately five U.S. children born each day with chromosomal or other medical irregularities such that doctors are unable to designate the sex at birth. In a 2020 article for The Atlantic,[7] Wise argued that the judicial branch should "resemble the full range of people in America's communities." She stated "a diverse judicial branch is not a superficial optic" but instead that "Americans are more prone to have confidence and trust in the judicial branch of government if it includes judges who share their physical traits, experiences, or other aspects of their identity."[8][9] On August 1, 2024, her nomination was reported out of committee by an 11–9 vote.[10] On November 21, 2024, the United States Senate invoked cloture on her nomination by a 50–49 vote.[11] On December 11, 2024, her nomination was confirmed by a 50–47 vote, with Senator Joe Manchin voting against confirmation.[12] She received her judicial commission on December 19, 2024.[13]

References

  1. ^ Sharpe, Maggie (December 24, 2014). "Alameda: Attorney elevated to judgeship". East Bay Times.
  2. ^ a b "Governor Brown Appoints Two to Alameda County Superior Court". ca.gov. November 12, 2014.
  3. ^ "Questionnaire for Judicial Nominees" (PDF). United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Retrieved July 9, 2024.
  4. ^ a b c "President Biden Names Fifty-First Round of Judicial Nominees" (Press release). Washington, D.C.: The White House. June 12, 2024. Retrieved June 12, 2024. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  5. ^ "Nominations Sent to the Senate" (Press release). Washington, D.C.: The White House. June 13, 2024.
  6. ^ "Nominations". Washington, D.C.: United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. July 9, 2024.
  7. ^ Wise, Noël (October 13, 2020). "America's Judiciary Doesn't Look Like America". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on November 1, 2020.
  8. ^ Weiss, Benjamin S. "Federal court nominee faces partisan grilling over magazine articles on gender". Courthouse News. Retrieved July 10, 2024.
  9. ^ Anderson, Craig (July 10, 2024). "Federal judge nominee sharply questioned over past writings". www.dailyjournal.com. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
  10. ^ "Results of Executive Business Meeting – August 1, 2024" (PDF). United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Retrieved August 1, 2024.
  11. ^ "On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture: Noel Wise to be U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of California)". United States Senate. November 21, 2024. Retrieved November 21, 2024.
  12. ^ "On the Nomination (Confirmation: Noel Wise, of California, to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of California)". United States Senate. December 11, 2024. Retrieved December 11, 2024.
  13. ^ Noël Wise at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
Legal offices
Preceded by Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California
2024–present 		Incumbent