James Ware (judge)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

James Ware is a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose, California. Ware received a B.A. in 1969 from California Lutheran University and a J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1972. From 1988-1990, Ware was a judge on the Santa Clara County Superior Court. He was appointed to the Federal Bench by President George H. W. Bush and received his received commission on October 1, 1990.

In 1998 Judge Ware was reprimanded by the Judicial Council of the Northern District Court of California for fabricating the story of being the brother of Virgil Ware, a 13 year old black boy shot by teenage racists in Alabama in 1963 on the same day as the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. According to a story Judge Ware had told many audiences, he was riding his bike with his brother Virgil on the handlebars when Virgil was shot and killed by white racists. The incident was a real one, however it happened to a different James Ware, as was discovered when Judge Ware's claim was published in the Alabama papers after he was nominated to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals by President Clinton. The father of the long-ago slain boy contacted the Alabama courts to report that the California judge was impersonating his own son James Ware who was an employee in a Birmingham power plant. The Alabama courts contacted the California courts, who convened the ethics hearing. Judge Ware was reprimanded but allowed to retain his lifetime appointment as district judge.[1] The incident earned him the sobriquet Lying Judge Ware.[2]

He is known for hearing a number of Internet business-related cases such as the sex.com ownership case and RealNetworks vs. Microsoft suit. He recently set the court date for the Google search terms suit. He ruled that search engine company Google.com must turn over bulk data related to searches, in response to a government order designed to bolster support for an anti-pornography law that has already been ruled unconstitutional [3].

He teaches Civil Procedure at Lincoln Law School of San Jose and Santa Clara University School of Law.