The Hon. Morrison C. England, Jr., ’83, was nominated by President George W. Bush to the position of United States District Court Judge, for the Eastern District of California, on March 21, 2002. Confirmed by the United States Senate to that position on August 1, 2002, he received his commission and assumed the office on August 2, 2002. A member of the Judge Advocate Generals Corps for the United States Army Reserve, his military service concluded upon his confirmation to the United States District Court. Judge England served as Chief Judge of the Eastern District of California from 2012 to 2016 and assumed senior status in 2019.
Before his federal judgeship, Gov. Pete Wilson appointed Judge England as a Sacramento Municipal Court Judge in 1996, and he was elevated to the Sacramento Superior Court in 1997. First presiding over dependency and delinquency matters in the Juvenile Division, he was then assigned to a General Trial Court presiding over criminal and civil matters.
In addition to court proceedings, Judge England was chair of the Superior Court’s Technology Committee, a member of the Superior Court’s Executive Committee, and a member, then Vice President of the Executive Board of the California Judge’s Association. Before his appointment to the Sacramento Superior Court, he was a partner with the firm of Quattrin, Johnson, Campora & England.
Appointed by United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Judge England is currently a member of the Judicial Council of the United States on Information Technology and previously served multiple terms on the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules for the United States. Additional long-term committee work for the United States, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Eastern District of California includes the Information Technology Advisory Council, the Ninth Circuit Courts and Community Committee, the State-Federal Judicial Council, the Committee for Public Information Community Outreach, the Judicial Advisory Committee, and the Technical Users Group Committee.
Additionally, Judge England has traveled abroad to Afghanistan, Bosnia, The Republic of Georgia, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Morocco, and Pakistan as part of an exchange with the judiciary of each of those countries. The exchanges, which included discussion on issues of the Rule of Law and Intellectual Property, were sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development, the Department of Commerce, the United States Patent and Trade Office, and the Department of Justice.
Judge England was a member of the University of the Pacific Board of Regents for nine years. Dedicated to serving McGeorge School of Law, he was a member of the Alumni Board of Directors, an Adjunct Professor of Law, a member then former President of the Anthony M. Kennedy Inn of Court, and served on the Kennedy Inn Executive Committee.
In addition to his prodigious professional committee work, Judge England participates in educational outreach programs, hosts student groups to observe live proceedings in his courtroom, and annually presides in the Open Doors to Federal Courts program hosted by the Eastern District of California.
In 2006, 2007, and 2014, Judge England was honored as “Judge of the Year” by the Capitol City Trial Lawyers, the Sacramento County Bar Association, and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), respectively. In January 2016, he was named a Distinguished Alumni from the University of the Pacific and the ninth recipient of the University’s Medallion of Excellence Award.
Throughout 2024, the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law will celebrate members of its vast alumni network in honor of the school’s 100-year anniversary. This post is part of a series highlighting 100 exceptional McGeorge School of Law alumni.
Stay tuned for more blog posts as we celebrate the law school’s centennial anniversary.