Jose S. CastilloIncumbent

Candidate for Court of Appeal Justice, California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Division 1, Seat 4

Jose S. Castillo was born in Mexico. He moved to the United States as a child. At seventeen, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. He studied at Santa Rosa Junior College. He earned a bachelor's degree from California State University, Sacramento. He earned his J.D. from the UC Davis School of Law in 2006. He was the first college graduate in his family. He was also the first lawyer in his family. He clerked for Judge Micaela Alvarez. Alvarez served on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. He then spent three years as a staff attorney. That job was with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco. He then served roughly a decade, from 2010 to 2020, as an Assistant U.S. Attorney. That was in the Southern District of California. He prosecuted cartel, gang, narcotics, and immigration cases. He joined the San Diego County Superior Court as a judge in 2020. He won election to that seat outright in the June 2022 primary. Governor Gavin Newsom nominated him to the Fourth District Court of Appeal, Division One, on February 17, 2023. He succeeded Justice Judith Haller. He was unanimously confirmed. He took the oath of office on April 7, 2023. He joined the court after the 2022 election. So he is on the November 3, 2026 ballot for his first nonpartisan yes-or-no retention vote as an appellate justice.

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