James Donato

James Joseph Donato (born in 1960) is an American attorney and judge. He has served as United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California since 2014.

Donato was born in 1960, in Pasadena, California. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1983 from the University of California, Berkeley. He received a Master of Arts degree in 1984 from Harvard University. He received a Juris Doctor in 1988 from Stanford Law School, where he was an executive board member of the Stanford Law Review.

Donato served as a law clerk for Judge Procter Ralph Hug Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1988 to 1989. From 1990 to 1993, he was an associate at the law firm of Morrison & Foerster LLP in San Francisco. He served as a deputy city attorney in the San Francisco City Attorney's Office from 1993 to 1996. He served as a partner at Cooley LLP from 1996 to 2009.

From 2009 to 2014 he served as a litigation partner in the San Francisco office of Shearman & Sterling LLP. His practice concentrated on antitrust litigation and class action lawsuits. He is a past president of the Bar Association of San Francisco.

On June 20, 2013, President Barack Obama nominated Donato to serve as a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, to the seat vacated by Judge James Ware, who retired on August 31, 2012. His nomination was submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Donato's nomination hearing was held on September 11, 2013, before the committee. On October 31, 2013, Donato was unanimously reported out of the committee. On February 12, 2014, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed for cloture on Donato's nomination. On February 25, 2014, the United States Senate invoked cloture on Donato’s nomination by a 55–42 vote, with 1 senator voted present. Later that day the nomination was confirmed by a 90–5 vote. Donato received his judicial commission on February 26, 2014.

On January 8, 2021, Donato issued an order blocking the implementation of a rule issued by the United States Department of Homeland Security and United States Department of Justice that would have created new restrictions for those seeking asylum in the United States. Donato ruled that purported Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf lacked authority to impose the rule because he had not been properly appointed to his position. Donato emphasized that he was the fifth federal judge to find that Wolf's appointment was unlawful and criticized the government for recycling the same arguments it had used to unsuccessfully defend Wolf's appointment in the past, writing: "In effect, the government keeps crashing the same car into a gate, hoping that someday it might break through."

Wolf resigned his post three days after Donato's ruling—and five days after the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol—saying his action was "warranted by recent events, including the ongoing and meritless court rulings regarding the validity of my authority as Acting secretary."