| Kimberly J. Mueller | |
| Office: | Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California |
| Term Start: | January 1, 2020 |
| Predecessor: | Lawrence Joseph O'Neill |
| Office1: | Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California |
| Term Start1: | December 21, 2010 |
| Appointer1: | Barack Obama |
| Predecessor1: | Frank C. Damrell Jr. |
| Office2: | Magistrate Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California |
| Term Start2: | 2003 |
| Term End2: | 2010 |
| Office3: | Member of the Sacramento City Council from the 6th district |
| Term Start3: | 1987 |
| Term End3: | 1992 |
| Predecessor3: | William Smallman |
| Successor3: | Darrell Steinberg |
| Birth Date: | 17 September 1957 |
| Birth Place: | Newton, Kansas, U.S. |
| Education: | Pomona College (BA) Stanford University (JD) |
Kimberly Jo Mueller (born September 17, 1957) is the chief United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, in the Sacramento division. She is the first female district judge to serve in the Eastern District.[1]
Mueller obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pomona College in 1981, and a Juris Doctor from Stanford University in 1995.[2]
Mueller served as an extern for California State Assemblyman Lloyd Connelly. After moving to Sacramento's Tahoe Park neighborhood, Mueller was elected to the Sacramento City Council, where she served from 1987 through 1992.[2] [3]
While on the council, Mueller was selected to serve as Vice-Mayor and chair of the city's budget committee. She also led a successful effort with then-Mayor Anne Rudin to introduce campaign finance reform to the city's politics.[4] [5] [6]
Mueller left her position on the Sacramento City Council in 1992 to attend Stanford Law School.[3] After graduation, she worked for five years at the Sacramento office of Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe, and later opened her own private practice.[2]
In 2003, Mueller was appointed as a United States Magistrate Judge of the Sacramento division of United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, becoming just the second woman to hold this position since the Eastern District was established in 1966.[7] [8]
Mueller was formerly an adjunct professor at the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento and UC Davis School of Law.
On March 10, 2010, President Barack Obama nominated Mueller to serve as United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California.[9] Her nomination was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate on December 16, 2010.[10] Mueller received her commission on December 21, 2010. She became chief judge of the Eastern District of California on January 1, 2020.[11]
On February 25, 2015, Mueller upheld California's Unsafe Handgun Act (also known as the handgun roster) as constitutional.[12] The Ninth Circuit affirmed the opinion on August 3, 2018.[13]
On April 17, 2015, Mueller held that criminal defendants charged with marijuana-related crimes had standing to bring a constitutional challenge to marijuana's Schedule I status, but ultimately rejected Defendants' constitutional arguments.[14]
On December 21, 2015, Mueller rejected a First Amendment challenge, filed by crisis pregnancy centers, to California's law requiring them to provide notice to clients regarding the availability of abortions and contraception.[15] The Ninth Circuit affirmed the decision,[16] but the Supreme Court reversed it.[17]
On December 29, 2022, Mueller upheld as constitutional California's ban on openly carrying handguns.[18] The Ninth Circuit reversed the decision on June 29, 2023 saying Mueller "applied the incorrect legal standard" to the case, remanding back to District Court.[19]
Mueller presides over the decades-long case Coleman v. Newsom, a class action challenging the conditions in California's prisons that resulted in a mandated reduction in the prison population and new requirements for medical care, mental health care, and suicide prevention in prisons. She also sits on the three-judge panel that adjudicates certain issues in Coleman and the related case, Brown v. Plata.[20]
Mueller also issued some of the earliest decisions interpreting the First Step Act in the context of requests for compassionate release due to the risk of COVID-19 filed by incarcerated individuals with comorbities.[21]