Holly A. Thomas

Holly Thomas
Holly Thomas
Judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; November 29, 2018
Appointed by	Jerry Brown
Preceded by	Robert Dukes
Personal details
Born	Holly Aiyisha Thomas; 1979 (age 41–42); San Diego, California, U.S.
Education	Stanford University (BA); Yale University (JD)

Holly Aiyisha Thomas (born 1979)[1] is an American lawyer and judge from California who has served as a judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court since 2018. She is a nominee to be a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Education

Thomas received her Bachelor of Arts, with honors and distinction, from Stanford University in 2000 and she received her Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 2004.[2]

Thomas served as a law clerk for Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 2004 to 2005. From 2005 to 2010, Thomas worked as an assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, where she was a Liman Fellow from 2005 to 2006. From 2010 to 2015, she was an appellate attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and from 2015 to 2016, Thomas was a special counsel to the Solicitor General of New York. From 2016 to 2018, she served as deputy director of Executive Programs at the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing.[2] In November 2018, Governor Jerry Brown appointed Thomas to be a judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court.[3]

On September 8, 2021, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Thomas to serve as a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. On September 20, 2021, her nomination was sent to the Senate. President Biden nominated Thomas to the seat to be vacated by Judge William A. Fletcher, upon confirmation of a successor.[4] Her nomination is pending before the Senate Judiciary Committee. On October 20, 2021, a hearing on her nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee.[5] On December 2, 2021, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 11-11 on a party-line vote, stalling her nomination in committee.[6] If confirmed, Thomas would be the first black woman to serve on the Ninth Circuit from California,[7] as well as the second black woman to ever serve on the Ninth Circuit after Johnnie B. Rawlinson.

Thomas' father was a school custodian and her mother was a bookkeeper, neither of whom went to college.[8]

"Questionnaire for Judicial Nominees" (PDF). United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Retrieved October 18, 2021.
"President Biden Names Seventh Round of Judicial Nominees" (Press release). Washington, D.C.: The White House. September 8, 2021. Retrieved September 8, 2021. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
"Governor Brown Appoints 12 Superior Court Judges" (Press release). Office of Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. November 29, 2018. Retrieved September 8, 2021.
"Nominations and Withdrawal Sent to the Senate" (Press release). Washington, D.C.: The White House. September 20, 2021. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
"Nominations". Washington, D.C.: United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. October 20, 2021.
"Results of Executive Business Meeting – December 2, 2021" (PDF). United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Retrieved December 2, 2021.
"President Biden Makes Judges Koh And Thomas First Korean-American And African American Female Appeals Court Judges In California". Oakland News Now. September 8, 2021. Retrieved September 8, 2021.
"Biden to name three California judges to 9th Circuit vacancies". Los Angeles Daily Journal. September 7, 2021. Retrieved September 8, 2021.

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