Otis D. Wright II

Otis Dalino Wright II (born July 31, 1944) is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

Otis Dalino Wright II
Judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California
Incumbent
Assumed office April 16, 2007
Appointed by	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Gary L. Taylor
Judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court
In office December 5, 2005[1] – April 16, 2007
Appointed by	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Deputy Attorney General of California
In office 1980–1983
Personal details
Born	Otis Dalino Wright II (1944-07-31) July 31, 1944 (age 81) Tuskegee, Alabama, U.S.
Political party	Independent[2]
Spouse	Evelyn F. Rhaney[1]
Education	California State University at Los Angeles (BA) Southwestern Law School (JD)
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch/service	United States Marine Corps[1]
Years of service	1963–1966 (active duty) 1966–1969[1] (reserve)[1]
Rank	Sergeant[1]

Early life and education

Born in Tuskegee, Alabama,^[3][4] Wright received a Bachelor of Arts degree from California State University at Los Angeles in 1976 and a Juris Doctor from Southwestern Law School in 1980. He was in the United States Marine Corps from 1963 to 1966, remaining in the United States Marine Corps Reserve until 1969. He was a deputy sheriff in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department from 1969 to 1980. He was a deputy attorney general in the Office of the Attorney General, California Department of Justice from 1980 to 1983. He was in private practice in Los Angeles from 1983 to 2005.

Judicial service

On October 28, 2005, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that he would be appointing Wright to serve as a judge on the Los Angeles County Superior Court.^[2] Wright replaced Judge Lorna Parnell.^[2]

Wright was nominated to the United States District Court for the Central District of California by President George W. Bush on September 5, 2006, to a seat vacated by Gary L. Taylor.^[5] He was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 15, 2007, and received his commission on April 16, 2007.^[6]

Notable cases

Case	Year	Reason for becoming widely discussed or noted
Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins	2011	Ruled against plaintiff's standing to sue because he had not alleged a sufficiently individualized injury. Wright was reversed by the unanimous United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which was itself then found to be in error by the U.S. Supreme Court.[7] On remand, the Ninth Circuit again found the plaintiff had standing to sue.[8]
Prenda Law	2013	Ruling against a "notorious" U.S. law firm and principals, which was viewed by onlookers and the court as engaging in copyright trolling and alleged legal extortion practices, often via shell companies. The case resulted in sanctions and law firm dissolution. Wright's opinion included a number of Star Trek catchphrases.[9][10]
U.S.A. v. Hudson, Whitfield & Dunlap	2014	Ruling against legitimacy of a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ("ATF") fictional stash-house robbery sting operation; such operations had drawn significant media and judicial concerns previously for a perceived inherent lack of fairness.
Alan Baker v. Allstate Insurance Company	2019	Imposed sanctions in the amount of US$17,808[11] after plaintiff's attorney Christopher Hook sent widely publicized[12] emails containing profanities and threats to counsel for Allstate.[13]
SpaceX v. U.S. Air Force	2020	SpaceX was not entitled to relief after the Air Force awarded contracts to United Launch Alliance (ULA), Blue Origin, and Northrop Grumman to help those companies with costs of developing new rockets and infrastructure.[14]
TikTok v. Trump	2020	Lawsuit challenging an executive order banning TikTok; the case impacted the nearly 80 million[15] TikTok users in the United States and drew significant attention from the press. The case was voluntarily dismissed in the Central District of California in September 2020[16] and filed instead in the District of Columbia.[17]

See also

• List of African-American federal judges
• List of African-American jurists