California Black Media
Sen. Laphonza Butler Helps Secure Nomination of Central California Federal Judge Michelle Williams Court
Last week, U.S. Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, helped to secure the nomination of Judge Michelle Williams Court as Judge for the Central District of California with a vote of 49-44. In her new role, Court became the third Black woman and fifth in the court’s history to serve as an Article III Judge in the state’s Central District. Since 2012, Court worked for the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles County.
By Bo Tefu, California Black Media
Last week, U.S. Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, helped to secure the nomination of Judge Michelle Williams Court as Judge for the Central District of California with a vote of 49-44.
In her new role, Court became the third Black woman and fifth in the court’s history to serve as an Article III Judge in the state’s Central District.
Since 2012, Court worked for the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles County.
In 2023, she was a supervising judge in the court’s civil division. Before being a judge, she worked as an attorney, then later became the vice president and general counsel at Bet Tzedek Legal Services, a nonprofit law firm specializing in human rights and poverty justice.
Court dedicated her career as a lawyer to civil rights and social development. She led and contributed to several projects at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and the American Civil Liberties Union in Southern California. The judge earned her Juris Doctor in 1993 from the Loyola Law School at the Loyola Marymount University, and she received her bachelor’s in 1988 from Pomona College.
“The Central District of California serves roughly seventeen million people, making it the largest federal district by population in the entire United States. The judges who serve these Californians are currently facing an unprecedented number of filings, making the need to fill the court’s vacancies all that more urgent. It is commonly said that ‘justice delayed is justice denied,’ and at this moment the people of California’s Central District are indeed being denied justice as a direct result of these judicial vacancies,” said Butler in her statement on the Senate Floor urging her colleagues to approve Court’s nomination.
Butler also praised Court’s commitment to justice and track record of serving the state of California.
“Her nomination is an important step towards building trust in our legal system by ensuring that our federal courts reflect and represent the diversity of the people it serves,” he said regarding Judge Court’s career serving in the state’s justice system.
