James V. Selna

James V. Selna
Judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California
Incumbent
Assumed office March 27, 2003
Appointed by	George W. Bush
Preceded by	J. Spencer Letts
Judge of the Superior Court of Orange County
In office 1998–2003
Personal details
Born	1945 (age 70–71) San Jose, California
Alma mater	Stanford University

James V. Selna (born 1945) is a United States federal judge.

Born in San Jose, California, Selna received an A.B. from Stanford University in 1967 and a J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1970. He was a Captain, U.S. Army Reserve from 1967 to 1978. He was in private practice in California from 1970 to 1998. He was a judge on the Superior Court, Orange County, California from 1998 to 2003.

Selna is currently serving as a federal judge on the United States District Court for the Central District of California at the Santa Ana courthouse. Selna was nominated by President George W. Bush on January 29, 2003, to a seat vacated by J. Spencer Letts. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 27, 2003, and received his commission the same day.

In April 2010 he was selected to manage the consolidated multidistrict litigation arising from the 2009–2010 Toyota vehicle recalls.

Controversy

In 2007, Selna was assigned the case of C. F. v. Capistrano Unified School District, in which Chad Farnan, a high school student, alleged that his teacher in an advanced placement European history class, violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution when the teacher made a number of statements in class that the student interpreted as disparaging religion. On May 1, 2009, Selna granted, in part, the now former student's motion for summary judgment, ruling that one statement of the many cited by the student, a comment that creationism was "superstitious nonsense," did violate the Establishment Clause.^[1][2] In subsequent proceedings, however, Selna determined that the teacher was protected by qualified immunity and, on September 24, 2009, entered judgment denying the student declaratory, injunctive or monetary relief, and inviting the defendants to apply for recovery of their attorney fees and costs.^[3] On August 19, 2011, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal affirmed his finding of qualified immunity, but, because it found the immunity issue to be dispositive, vacated that portion of the judgment that dealt with the constitutionality of the teacher's comments.^[4][5]

References

1. Student Wins Suit After Teacher Says Creationism ‘Superstitious Nonsense’
2. Enemies of Creationism may be Hindering Science Teachers
3. Judgment at http://ncse.com/webfm_send/1658
4. C.F. v. Capistrano Unified School Dist.. Text
5. "Vindication for Corbett". National Center for Science Education. 19 August 2011. Retrieved 19 August 2011.

• James V. Selna at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.