Dolly Gee
2010 - Present
15
Dolly Maizie Gee is the chief judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California. She was nominated to the court by President Barack Obama (D) on August 6, 2009, and confirmed by the United States Senate on December 24, 2009, via voice vote.[1]
Biography
Early life and education
Judge Gee received her B.A. degree from the University of California-Los Angeles in 1981 and her J.D. degree from the UCLA School of Law in 1984. After law school, she clerked for District Judge Milton Schwartz of the Eastern District of California until 1986.[1]
Professional career
Gee worked as a managing partner of the Los Angeles law firm Schwartz, Steinsapir, Dohrmann & Sommers LLP. Her specialty was labor and employment law.[2] She was appointed to the Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP) in 1994, where she served a five-year term. She also served multiple years as a investigating election protests for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Delegate and Officer Elections. Since 2000, she has served as an arbitrator for the Kaiser Permanente Independent Arbitration System. She argued cases in the Central District Court as a lawyer. She is a former president of the Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association, former trustee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, and a founder of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Los Angeles County.[1]
Judicial career
Central District of California
 |
| Nominee Information |
| Name: Dolly Gee |
| Court: Central District of California |
| Progress |
| Confirmed 140 days after nomination. |
| Questionnaire: Questionnaire |
| QFRs: QFRs (Hover over QFRs to read more) |
Judge Gee was nominated by President Barack Obama on August 7, 2009 to the United States District Court for the Central District of California to fill the seat vacated by George Schiavelli.[3] The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved her nomination on October 15, 2009.[4][5] She was confirmed by the full Senate on December 24, 2009.[1]
Gee received a rating of "Unanimously Qualified" from the American Bar Association.[6]
Judiciary Committee hearing
Gee had a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding her nomination to the Central District of California on September 23, 2009, and her nomination was confirmed by the full Senate on December 24, 2009.
Noteworthy cases
Flores v. Barr (2020)
Flores v. Barr: On June 26, 2020, Judge Dolly Gee, of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to transfer migrant children held at ICE Family Residential Centers (FRCs) to their families or sponsors by July 17, 2020. The order came as the result of a complaint filed on March 26, 2020, in which the plaintiffs, representing detained minors in a longstanding class action, alleged that continued detention of the minors "in congregate detention facilities in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and public health national emergency" violated the Flores settlement. The Flores settlement is a 1997 court-supervised stipulated settlement agreement which governs the detention conditions and treatment of noncitizen migrant children held in federal custody. Gee’s order was limited to minors held at FRCs for more than 20 days. It provided that removal "shall be undertaken with all deliberate speed." The order went on to state that, prior to removal, "ICE shall urgently enforce its existing COVID-19 protocols," including social distancing, masking, and enhanced testing at all detention centers. Gee had previously ordered the federal government, on April 24, 2020, to "continue to make every effort to promptly and safely release" the minors, an order ICE appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on June 23, 2020.[7][8]
Flores v. Sessions (2018)
On June 20, 2018, President Donald Trump (R) signed an executive order directing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to keep detained families together. The order also called on the U.S. Department of Defense to assist in providing housing for families when detention centers are at capacity, according to Politico. The order came amid criticisms of the administration's policy, announced on May 7, 2018, of prosecuting parents crossing the U.S. border illegally and separating children from their parents pending resolution of their cases. Prior to signing the order, Trump said, "We’re going to be signing an executive order in a little while. We’re going to keep families together but we still have to maintain toughness or our country will be overrun by people, by crime, by all of the things that we don’t stand for and that we don’t want." The full text of the order can be accessed here.[9][10][11]
At the time the order was signed, it was unclear how it might conflict with the Flores agreement, a legal settlement reached in 1997 that has been interpreted by federal courts to prevent immigration officials from detaining minor children for more than 20 days. Trump's order directed the attorney general to file a request in federal district court to modify the terms of the agreement "in a manner that would permit [federal officials] ... to detain alien families together throughout the pendency of criminal proceedings for improper entry or any removal or other immigration proceedings." On July 9, 2018, Judge Dolly Gee, of the United States District Court for the Central District of California, issued an order denying that request. Gee wrote, "It is apparent that Defendants' Application is a cynical attempt ... to shift responsibility to the Judiciary for over 20 years of Congressional inaction and ill-considered Executive action that have led to the current stalemate. ... In sum, Defendants have not shown that applying the Flores Agreement 'prospectively is no longer equitable,' or that 'manifest injustice' will result if the Agreement is not modified." Devin O'Malley, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice, said the following in a statement responding to Gee's order: "Parents who cross the border will not be released and must choose between remaining in family custody with their children pending immigration proceedings or requesting separation from their children so the child may be placed with a sponsor."[12][13][14]
See also
- United States District Court for the Central District of California
- United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
External links
- Search Google News for this topic
- Biography from the Federal Judicial Center
- United States District Court for the Central District of California
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Federal Judicial Center, "Gee, Dolly Maizie," accessed April 25, 2024 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "bio" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ "NAPABA and AAJC Applaud the Nominations of Dolly M. Gee and Edward M. Chen to the Federal Judiciary ," The Asian American Justice Center, Aug. 7, 2009
- ↑ White House Press Release "President Obama Nominates Edward Milton Chen, Dolly Gee and Richard Seeborg to Serve on the District Court Bench," August 7, 2009
- ↑ Barbara Boxer Press Release "Senate Judiciary Committee Approves Los Angeles Attorney Dolly Gee for U.S. District Court," October 15, 2009
- ↑ Metropolitan News-Enterprise "Senate Committee Approves Nominees for Federal Courts," October 16, 2009
- ↑ Judicial Nomination Materials (dead link)
- ↑ United States District Court for the Central District of California, "Flores v. Barr: Order," June 26, 2020
- ↑ United States District Court for the Central District of California, "Flores v. Barr: Ex Parte Application for Temporary Restraining Order and Order to Show Cause re: Preliminary Injunction," March 26, 2020
- ↑ The Hill, "Trump says he will sign 'something' to end family separations," June 20, 2018
- ↑ The Guardian, "Donald Trump pledges to end family separations by executive order," June 20, 2018
- ↑ Politico, "Trump signs executive action halting family separations," June 20, 2018
- ↑ Reuters UK, "Trump backs down on separating immigration children, legal problems remain," accessed June 21, 2018
- ↑ United States District Court for the Central District of California, "Flores v. Sessions: Order Denying Defendants' 'Ex Parte Application for Limited Relief from Settlement Agreement," July 9, 2018
- ↑ Reuters, "Judge rejects Trump administration request for long-term detention of immigrant children," July 9, 2018
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United States District Court for the Central District of California 2010-Present |
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