22 Facts About Derrick Watson

Derrick Kahala Watson was born on September 9,1966 and is an American lawyer who serves as the chief United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii.

Derrick Watson served as a federal prosecutor for some years in California and then Hawaii, rising to become chief of the Civil Division of the US Attorney's Office for the District of Hawaii.

Derrick Watson was appointed to the federal bench in 2013 by President Barack Obama and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate in 2013.

Derrick Kahala Watson was born in 1966, in Honolulu, Hawaii, to a Honolulu police officer and a worker at a local bank.

Derrick Watson was the first in his family to graduate college.

Derrick Watson received his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1991, and was admitted to practice law in California the same year.

Derrick Watson served as an assistant United States attorney in the Northern District of California from 1995 to 2000, serving as deputy chief of the Civil Division from 1999 to 2000.

In 2000, Derrick Watson returned to private practice, joining the law firm of Farella Braun + Martel LLP, where he worked on product liability, toxic tort, and environmental cost recovery litigation.

Derrick Watson served as an assistant United States attorney in the District of Hawaii from 2007 to 2013 and served as chief of the Civil Division from 2009 to 2013.

From 1998 to 2006, Derrick Watson served in the United States Army Reserve in the Judge Advocate General's Corps, honorably discharged with the rank of captain.

On November 14,2012, President Barack Obama nominated Derrick Watson to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii, to the seat vacated by Judge David Alan Ezra, who assumed senior status on June 27,2012.

Derrick Watson was renominated to the same office the next day.

Derrick Watson was rated "well qualified" by a substantial majority of the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary.

Derrick Watson encountered no opposition in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which reported his nomination to the Senate floor on February 14,2013, by voice vote.

Derrick Watson is the fourth Native Hawaiian to serve on the federal bench, and the only currently serving Native Hawaiian judge.

On March 15,2017, Derrick Watson granted a temporary restraining order blocking President Trump's revised executive order banning entry of nationals of six majority-Muslim countries into the United States from going into effect.

Subsequently, the Ninth Circuit ruled that Derrick Watson "had the authority to interpret the Supreme Court's order and block any violation of it" and the issue returned to him.

Derrick Watson ordered that the definition of "close family members" be expanded to include grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins in the United States.

Derrick Watson ruled that refugees who have a formal promise of placement from a US resettlement agency are exempt from the ban.

On October 17,2017, Derrick Watson again issued a temporary restraining order preventing a later revision of Trump's travel ban from going into effect.

Derrick Watson argued that the revised ban "suffers from precisely the same maladies as its predecessor".

Derrick Watson described himself to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser as a political independent.