DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO
U.S. District Judge Cynthia Bashant took over as chief judge of the Southern District of California on Wednesday evening during a passing of the gavel ceremony with her predecessor, District Judge Dana Sabraw.
Flanked by 17 other federal judges from the district, which covers San Diego and Imperial counties, Bashant called the judicial branch the “backbone of our democracy” while Sabraw described it as the “bedrock” of American democracy during a ceremony at the James M. Carter and Judith N. Keep U.S. Courthouse in downtown San Diego.
Much of the ceremony was dedicated to honoring Sabraw as he stepped down as chief judge. San Diego County Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe read a proclamation from the Board of Supervisors declaring Wednesday to be “Dana Makota Sabraw Day throughout San Diego County.”
Sabraw, 66, could have served as chief judge of the district until he turned 70, but he stepped down early to allow his longtime friend Bashant to become chief of the district.
Federal rules dictate that a chief judge position be filled by the senior-most judge in a district who is under 65 years of age. Bashant is set to turn 65 in March.
The timing of the ceremony — the week of President Donald Trump’s inauguration and other turnover in federal leadership positions — was coincidental. By tradition, the Southern District of California since 1984 has held its passing of the gavel ceremonies on Jan. 22, the birth date of a former chief judge, Howard Turrentine, who stepped down on his 70th birthday.
Sabraw, who is married to San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan, had served as chief judge since January 2021, when he took over for the now-retired Larry Burns.
During his time as chief of the district, Sabraw helped lead the court through the back end of the COVID-19 pandemic and oversaw the swearing in of six district judges and six magistrate judges.
In a video tribute, his colleagues in the legal profession lauded his compassion, generosity and kindness, among other traits. U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Berg said the highest compliment he could give is that he has tried to emulate Sabraw.
“It’s a beautiful thing to be eulogized” while still alive, Sabraw joked.
District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who presented a history of the chief judges in the district, said Sabraw “may be most well-known for the family separation case” that he oversaw before becoming the district’s chief.
In that landmark immigration case, Sabraw presided over lawsuits over the first Trump administration’s policy of separating families at the border as part of its policy of criminally charging all adults who crossed the border unlawfully.
Sabraw struck down the policy and oversaw the reunification of families throughout 2018 and beyond. The San Diego Union-Tribune’s editorial board named him its 2018 San Diego person of the year.
Bashant, who displayed photos of herself and Sabraw when they were young attorneys working together in private practice, also oversaw high-profile legal challenges to immigration policies during the first Trump presidency.
She ruled that the practice of “metering” — which involved U.S. officials turning away asylum seekers at border crossings if those crossings were deemed to be at capacity — was unconstitutional.
Bashant worked in private practice for the first three years of her career before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego for the next 11 years.
She then served 14 years as a San Diego Superior Court judge before she was appointed a U.S. district judge by President Barack Obama in 2014.
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