William H. Orrick III
How Judge Orrick decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Grants preliminary injunctions against executive action that likely exceeds constitutional limits, relying heavily on his own and Ninth Circuit sanctuary-cities precedent, treating agency 'guidance' that unambiguously commands action as justiciable, and merging the equities and public-interest factors when the government is a party.
“Having established all of the Winter factors, the Cities and Counties are entitled to a preliminary injunction. ... Defendants and their officers ... ARE HEREBY RESTRAINED AND ENJOINED from directly or indirectly taking any action to withhold, freeze, or condition federal funds from the Cities and Counties based on [the 2025 Executive Orders and the Bondi Directive].”
Procedural preferences
In mass-tort MDLs he uses unopposed batch dismissals to clear non-communicating or inactive plaintiffs from the docket for failure to prosecute.
“Having considered the Motion, seeing no opposition, and with good cause appearing therefore, the Court hereby GRANTS the Motion and DISMISSES the Complaints filed by all plaintiffs identified in Exhibit A with prejudice.”
Cautions
In generative-AI training copyright cases he sustains the core direct and induced copyright theory at the pleading stage but is exacting on ancillary statutory hooks, dismissing DMCA Section 1202 CMI-removal claims with prejudice absent specific factual allegations.
“Defendants' motions to dismiss the DMCA claims are GRANTED and the DMCA claims are DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE. ... Defendants' motions to dismiss the Copyright Act claims are DENIED. Midjourney's motion to dismiss the Lanham Act claims is DENIED. DeviantArt's motion to dismiss the breach of contract and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing claims is GRANTED and those claims are DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Having established all of the Winter factors, the Cities and Counties are entitled to a preliminary injunction. ... Defendants and their officers ... ARE HEREBY RESTRAINED AND ENJOINED from directly or indirectly taking any action to withhold, freeze, or condition federal funds from the Cities and Counties based on [the 2025 Executive Orders and the Bondi Directive].”
“Defendants' motions to dismiss the DMCA claims are GRANTED and the DMCA claims are DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE. ... Defendants' motions to dismiss the Copyright Act claims are DENIED. Midjourney's motion to dismiss the Lanham Act claims is DENIED. DeviantArt's motion to dismiss the breach of contract and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing claims is GRANTED and those claims are DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE.”
“Having considered the Motion, seeing no opposition, and with good cause appearing therefore, the Court hereby GRANTS the Motion and DISMISSES the Complaints filed by all plaintiffs identified in Exhibit A with prejudice.”
“For the above reasons, Unisys's motion for summary judgment is GRANTED. Saba's motion for partial summary judgment is DENIED.”
“Unisys's motion for summary judgment is GRANTED. Saba's motion for partial summary judgment is DENIED.”
28 U.S.C. 1915A prisoner-complaint screening order that rules on no party motion. Orrick found cognizable Eighth Amendment claims against six Salinas Valley prison guards and ordered Marshal service, while dismissing claims against other defendants for failure to state a claim. The order states: 'All claims against them are DISMISSED.'
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Orrick's 2026 sample is dominated by newly filed civil matters, pro se filings, and criminal cases, as expected for a recently senior judge who continues to receive assignments. The terminated-case sample filed from 2019 through 2021 is heavily weighted toward Juul multidistrict-litigation member cases, along with racketeering and criminal matters. The durations below come from terminated cases.
Put Judge Orrick's record to work
Ezel drafts and answers grounded in this exact profile: how Judge Orrick actually rules, not a generic AI guess.
Opens in Ezel Pro. Every answer is grounded in Judge Orrick's own signed orders and cites them.