Miranda Mai Du (born 1969) is an American lawyer who has served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Nevada. As a district judge, Du has presided over a number of noteworthy cases, including a number regarding voting rights. She served as the chief judge of the court 2019 to 2024.
Early life and education Du was born in Cà Mau, Vietnam, in 1969.Questionnaire for Judicial Nominees: Miranda Mai Du, United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. During the Vietnam War, her father had been a supporter of the U.S.-backed Army of the Republic of Vietnam, and the family left to seek asylum in Malaysia when Du was nine years old, fleeing the country by boat.Jennifer Smith-Pulsipher, Miranda M. Du: Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, Nevada Lawyer (May 2020), p. 20.Linh Hua, "Du, Miranda (1969-)" in Asian Americans: An Encyclopedia of Social, Cultural, Economic, and Political History (ed. Ziaojian Zhao & Edward J. W. Park: Greenwood, 2013), pp. 352-53. Du's family spent nearly a year in Malaysian refugee camps before ultimately being granted asylum in the United States, being sponsored by a family in Winfield, Alabama.CAPAC Commends President Obama for Nominating Miranda Du and Promoting Judicial Diversity (press release), Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (August 2, 2011).CAPAC Praises Confirmation of Miranda Du to U.S. District Court (press release), Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (March 28, 2012). Growing up, Du and her family lived in a number of places across the United States, including Winfield, Alabama, where her father worked on a dairy farm. The family also lived at various times in Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Seattle, Washington; and Oakland, California. Du participated in Upward Bound in high school.
Du received a Bachelor of Arts from University of California, Davis, in 1991, graduating with honors in history and economics. She earned her Juris Doctor from University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 1994.
Career Upon graduating from law school, Du was admitted to the bar in Nevada in 1994 and in California in 1995. She took a job as an associate at the law firm McDonald Carano Wilson LLP in 1994 and was promoted to partner in 2002. She practiced for about one year in Las Vegas, before transferring to the firm's Reno, Nevada office. Du practiced employment law, serving as chair of her firm's employment and labor practice group.
Federal judicial service
On August 2, 2011, President Barack Obama nominated Du to replace Judge Roger L. Hunt, who assumed senior status. A substantial majority of the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, which rates the qualifications of judicial nominees, rated Du as "qualified" for the post, with a minority rating her "not qualified" (the committee rates on a three-tier scale: well qualified, qualified, and not qualified). Du's nomination and confirmation were strongly supported by Nevada's two U.S. senators, Harry Reid (Democrat) and Dean Heller (Republican),Confirmation Hearings on Federal Appointments, 112th Cong., 1st Session, S. Hrg. 112-72, Pt. 4, Senate Committee on the Judiciary (September 7, 2011). as well as the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. Her confirmation was opposed by some Republican senators, who viewed her as too inexperienced and cited a sanction against her in 2007 by a Nevada federal court.
On November 3, 2011, the Senate Judiciary Committee reported her nomination to the Senate floor by a 10–8 vote. On March 28, 2012, Du's nomination was confirmed by a 59–39 vote. She received her commission two days later. Du became the first Asian Pacific American to serve as an Article III judge in Nevada.
As a new district judge, Du initially worked in Las Vegas, but after about a year transferred her chambers to Reno, where she remains based.Carri Geer Thevenot, Nevada inmate sentenced for threatening federal judge, Las Vegas Review-Journal (February 24, 2020). She became chief judge of the court on September 2, 2019, after Judge Gloria Navarro finished her term as chief judge. Du served as chief judge of the court during the coronavirus pandemic, during which all federal trials and naturalization ceremonies in the judicial district were postponed.Jeff German & David Ferrara, Nevada court trials on hold: 'We're taking it day by day', Las Vegas Review-Journal (March 16, 2020). Her term as chief judge ended in September or October 2024. Du is part of the court's Patent Pilot Program, which allows judges who are not part of the program to have new patent and plant variety protection cases randomly reassigned to a judge who is participating in the program.First Amended General Order No. 2011-03: Patent Pilot Program, U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada (August 24, 2012).
In February 2020, a Nevada prison inmate was sentenced to four years in prison for making threats of violence against Du.
Voting rights decisions In 2016, Du granted a preliminary injunction sought by members of two Nevada Native American tribes (the Pyramid Lake Paiute and Walker River Paiute), compelling the Washoe County registrar to set up early voting polling places at the tribes' reservations (in Nixon and Schurz), and to set up an Election Day polling place at Nixon. In the absence of the ruling, many tribal members would have had to travel nearly 100 miles round trip to reach polling sites, and Du ruled that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 required the state to take the location of their reservations into account when planning polling locations. Du denied the plaintiffs' request to require the state to set up in-person voter registration locations at the reservations, holding that the tribes lacked standing to seek that form of relief.Sanchez v. Cegavske, 214 F. Supp. 3d 961 (D. Nev. 2016).
In April and May 2020, Du twice rejected requests made by the right-wing group True the Vote and Nevada Right to Life seeking to cancel Nevada's mostly all-mail primary elections, which was put in place by Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske because in-person voting risked spreading COVID-19.Riley Snyder, Judge rejects conservative group’s attempt to block planned all-mail primary, Nevada Independent (April 30, 2020).Riley Snyder, Judge again blocks conservative group's effort to stop mail-only primary election, Nevada Independent (May 27, 2020). Du held that the groups lacked standing to seek to block an all-mail election and that "Defendants' interests in protecting the health and safety of Nevada's voters and to safeguard the voting franchise in light of the COVID-19 pandemic far outweigh any burden on Plaintiffs' right to vote, particularly when that burden is premised on a speculative claim of voter fraud resulting in dilution of votes."
In May 2020, Du issued a decision granting Fair Maps Nevada (a political action committee backed by the Nevada League of Women Voters) additional time to collect voter signatures necessary to put a question on the ballot to create an independent Nevada redistricting commission. Du held that because the COVID-19 stay-at-home order issued by the Nevada authorities effectively prevented Fair Maps Nevada from gathering signatures for the period that the order was in effect, the Nevada Secretary of State's decision to refuse to extend the deadline to collect signatures was unreasonable and violated the First Amendment.Colton Lochhead, Ballot petition for redistricting commission gets more signature-gathering time, Las Vegas Review-Journal (May 29, 2020). Du therefore extended the deadline to August 2020. However, Du declined Fair Maps Nevada's request to allow electronic signature gathering.
Environment and land use decisions In 2015, Du denied a request by a number of rural Nevada counties, mining companies, and ranchers seeking a preliminary injunction to block a U.S. Department of the Interior policy that restricted development on federal lands in Nevada and eastern California to protect the greater sage grouse.Scott Sonner, Nevada judge denies counties' bid for sage grouse injunction, Associated Press (December 9, 2015). Du held that the plaintiffs had failed to demonstrate imminent, irreparable harm, a prerequisite for obtaining a preliminary injunction.Bob Conrad, Judge Denies Request for Preliminary Injunction in Sage Grouse Lawsuit, The Is Reno (December 8, 2015). In 2020, Du sided with the U.S. Forest Service and conservationists in upholding the Forest Service's power to prohibit off-roading within a "buffer area" in the Mono Basin along the California-Nevada border for a three-month period, to protect the greater sage grouse mating grounds.Scott Sonner, Judge denies Nevada off-road challenge to grouse protection, Associated Press (July 13, 2020). The Sierra Trail Dogs Motorcycle and Recreation Club sued the Forest Service over the rule, which forced the postponement of the club's annual dirt bike race; Du held that under the National Environmental Policy Act, the Forest Service's prohibition was a minor variation of the previously issued environmental impact statement, and therefore the agency was not required to conduct a supplemental environmental review.
In 2019, Du rejected a request by the Nevada state government for a preliminary injunction to block the U.S. Department of Energy from shipping weapons-grade plutonium from South Carolina's Savannah River Site to the Nevada National Security Site.Humberto Sanchez, Nevada to appeal ruling against state request barring more plutonium shipments, The Nevada Independent (February 4, 2019).Nevada to appeal judge's decision not to block plutonium, Associated Press (February 4, 2020).Nevada v. United States, 364 F. Supp. 3d 1146 (D. Nev. 2019). Du found that an injunction was unwarranted because Nevada "cannot demonstrate the likelihood of irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary injunctive relief or that the balance of hardships tips in its favor". Nevada's appeal to the Ninth Circuit was dismissed as moot because the federal government completed the plutonium shipments to Nevada.Nevada v. United States, 783 F. App'x 700 (9th Cir. 2019).Scott Sonner, Court rules for US in fight over Nevada plutonium shipment, Associated Press (August 13, 2019).
Criminal law decisions In 2015, Du granted the habeas petition of Jose Echavarria, a death row inmate convicted of killing an FBI agent during a bank robbery in 1991. Echavarria's attorneys argued that his trial was unfair because the presiding judge was also being investigated by the FBI – a fact the defense did not learn until after the trial ended. Du agreed and ruled that Echavarria was entitled to a new trial.Ruling upholds order for new trial for death row inmate, Associated Press (July 25, 2018).Echavarria v. Baker, Case No. 3:98-cv-00202-MMD-VPC (D. Nev. Jan. 16, 2015). Du's ruling was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.Echavarria v. Filson, 896 F.3d 1118 (9th Cir. 2018).
Du also presided over the criminal case against a doctor and hospital executive from Winnemucca in rural Nevada who illegally wrote prescriptions for opioids without a medical purpose. The executive pleaded guilty to distribution of a controlled substance;Rural Nevada hospital exec guilty of opioid charges, Associated Press (February 6, 2019). Du sentenced him to a year and a day in federal prison, a $125,000 fine, and three years of supervised release.Former Winnemucca doctor sentenced to prison for illegal drug prescriptions, KRXI-TV (August 26, 2019).
Other notable decisions