William Alsup
How Judge Alsup rules, drawn from 19 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Judge Alsup no longer sits on this court. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled here.
About Judge Alsup
William Haskell Alsup served on the United States District Court for the Northern District of California after receiving his commission on August 17, 1999. He assumed senior status on January 21, 2021. He took inactive status by January 2026, and his remaining cases were reassigned.
How Judge Alsup decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In In re Glumetza Antitrust Litigation, he denied all four summary-judgment motions after finding material disputes in the record that required further proceedings.
“All motions for summary judgment are DENIED. This order has trodden carefully to resolve the parties' four dispositive motions without requiring full resolution of the parties' ten pending Daubert motions.”
Procedural preferences
In Sayre v. Google, he dismissed the plaintiff's antitrust action with prejudice after repeated failures to prosecute and appear, finding amendment futile.
“For the reasons stated above, defendant's motion to dismiss is GRANTED. In light of Sayre's failure to prosecute, his failures to appear, and for reasons mentioned above, leave to amend is futile and this action is DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE.”
Cautions
In Black v. Atlas Field Services, Alsup denied an unopposed request for leave to amend, finding counsel’s belated effort to remedy earlier neglect was made in bad faith.
“This order will not bless counsel's belated efforts to make up for prior lack thereof, and finds this motion to amend made in bad faith. ... Plaintiff's motion for leave to file a first amended complaint is DENIED.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“For the reasons stated above, defendant's motion to dismiss is GRANTED. In light of Sayre's failure to prosecute, his failures to appear, and for reasons mentioned above, leave to amend is futile and this action is DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE.”
“All motions for summary judgment are DENIED. This order has trodden carefully to resolve the parties' four dispositive motions without requiring full resolution of the parties' ten pending Daubert motions.”
“For the foregoing reasons, defendant's motion is DENIED.”
“This order will not bless counsel's belated efforts to make up for prior lack thereof, and finds this motion to amend made in bad faith. ... Plaintiff's motion for leave to file a first amended complaint is DENIED.”
“Defendants move to dismiss Claim 2 of the complaint with prejudice under Rule 12(b)(1), and plaintiffs do not oppose (Dkt. Nos. 35, 39). Accordingly, Claim 2 is DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE.”
“For the foregoing reasons, Amazon's motion to dismiss is GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART. MasterObjects' claim as to pre-suit willful infringement is DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE.”
“Defendant Rogers's motion to dismiss (dk. 16) is GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART, as described above.”
“This order grants summary judgment for Anthropic that the training use was a fair use. And, it grants that the print-to-digital format change was a fair use for a different reason. But it denies summary judgment for Anthropic that the pirated library copies must be treated as training copies.”
“The motion for class certification is GRANTED as to one of the alternative pirated books classes, and otherwise denied, as follows: 1. The following LibGen & PiLiMi Pirated Books Class is CERTIFIED”
“OPM's January 20 memo, February 14 email, and all other efforts by OPM to direct the termination of employees at NPS, BLM, VA, DOD, SBA, and FWS are unlawful, invalid, and must be stopped and rescinded.”
“For the reasons stated from the bench, and further explained above, the Court granted the injunction.”
“Final approval of the class settlement is therefore GRANTED.”
“The motion for attorney's fees, costs, and class representative service awards is GRANTED.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
During his senior service, Alsup's sampled docket included qui tam, administrative-law, copyright, post-conviction, foreign judicial-assistance, and criminal matters. The listed durations come from terminated dockets. He became inactive at the end of 2025, when the court announced it would reassign his remaining cases.
Pending matters in the official report
Reported by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts under the Civil Justice Reform Act, as of March 31, 2026.
| Motions pending more than six months | 0 |
| Bench trials submitted more than six months | 0 |
| Bankruptcy appeals pending more than six months | 0 |
| Social Security appeals pending more than six months | 0 |
| Civil cases pending more than three years | 0 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2025 | 8 | 11 |
| Mar 2025 | 3 | 12 |
| Sep 2024 | 0 | 15 |
| Mar 2024 | 10 | 30 |
| Sep 2023 | 9 | 27 |
| Mar 2023 | 14 | 23 |
| Sep 2022 | 15 | 17 |
| Mar 2022 | 2 | 15 |
| Sep 2021 | 14 | 10 |
| Mar 2021 | 6 | 8 |
| Sep 2020 | 26 | 9 |
A snapshot on that date: matters listed may since have been decided or reassigned. A motion referred to a magistrate judge is counted for both judges. Motions in multidistrict litigation, section 2255 cases and Social Security appeals are not counted, and a very large three-year count is generally a multidistrict docket. Source: Appendix A of the report (PDF); about the report.
A historical record
Judge Alsup no longer sits on this court. This profile stays available as a record of how they ruled here. If you're preparing for a matter, start from the court's current bench.