In a second attempt to fill a long time vacancy on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, the White House has nominated state judge Rebecca Kanter.
Background
Rebecca S. Kanter received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Irvine in 2000 and then a Juris Doctor from UC Los Angeles School of Law in 2003. Kanter subsequently clerked for Judge Harry Hupp on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
Kanter subsequently joined O’Melveny & Myers LLP as an associate and then in 2006 became a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California. She held that position until she joined the San Diego County Superior Court in 2023, where she currently serves.
History of the Seat
Kanter has been nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, to a seat vacated on August 1, 2021, by Judge William Hayes’ move to senior status. Kanter’s colleague, Marian Gaston, had previously been nominated to fill this seat by President Biden, but withdrew her nomination after sitting on the Senate floor without a vote for over six months.
Legal Experience
Kanter started her legal career as an associate at O’Melveny & Myers, where she worked on civil and criminal defense. Subsequently, Kanter spent sixteen years as a federal prosecutor, where she rose to be deputy chief in the Major Crimes section, civil rights chief, and an ethics adviser in the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Throughout her career, Kanter has tried around twenty-five cases and has argued six appeals before the Ninth Circuit.
Kanter has focused most of her career on financial crimes and public corruption cases. For example, Kanter prosecuted Joseph Bentley and Eugene Cloe, who, it was alleged, conspired to defraud the U.S. Navy. See United States v. Bentley, Case No. 15cr0195 JM (S.D. Cal.) (Miller, J.).
Among other notable cases that Kanter has been involved with, she was part of the legal team in an en banc Ninth Circuit case where the court ruled that the termination of a defendant’s state probation “nunc pro tunc” by a state judge retroactively to the date before a federal crime was committed doesn’t alter the defendant’s status as a probationer when the federal crime was committed. See United States v. Yepez, Case No. 09-50271 (9th Cir. 2012) (en banc) (per curiam).
Jurisprudence
Since 2023, Kanter has served as a judge on the San Diego Superior Court. In this role, she presides over trial court matters in criminal, civil, family, and other state law matters. Previously, Kanter served as a volunteer judge presiding over small claims court.
Statements
In a 2022 interview when she was running for the Superior Court, Kanter elaborated on her judicial philosophy, noting that she wanted to be mindful of the humanity of all individuals who appeared before her and the ability of a judge to affect real-world outcomes. She also discussed how her views of criminal prosecution had been shaped by the death of George Floyd, noting that it emphasized that prosecutions are ultimately about ensuring accountability for individual’s actions. See 2022 Election: Q&A With Rebecca Kanter, Candidate for Superior Court Judge, Office 35, San Diego Union Tribune, Apr. 12, 2022, https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/commentary/story/2022-04-12/opinion-q-a-with-judge-candidate-rebecca-kanter.
Political Activity
Kanter has had a number of political donations over her career, all to Democrats.
Overall Assessment
In comparison to Gaston, who drew strong opposition for her work as a public defender, Kanter has a far more traditional background for a federal judge. While her jurisprudence is unlikely to be much different than that of Gaston, Kanter is nonetheless significantly more favored to join the federal bench.