Thelton E. Henderson

The Honorable Thelton E. Henderson was appointed to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California by President Jimmy Carter in 1979. After serving as Chief Judge of the district from 1990 to 1997, he assumed senior status in 1997 and inactive status in 2017. Among his more notable cases, Judge Henderson has overseen institutional reform of the special education system in East Palo Alto’s Ravenswood City School District; the Oakland Police Department; conditions at Pelican Bay State Prison; and the provision of medical care to incarcerated persons throughout the California prison system.

Prior to his appointment to the bench, Judge Henderson worked for the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice, as a legal aid lawyer, and in private practice. He also served as an associate professor at Golden Gate University School of Law and an assistant dean at Stanford Law School, where he developed a program to increase minority admissions. His alma mater, Berkeley Law, renamed its Center for Social Justice – now the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice – in his honor in 2006.