Dale A. Kimball - Judicial Career

Judicial Career

On September 4, 1997, President William Jefferson Clinton nominated Kimball as a United States District Judge for the District of Utah. Kimball's nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 21, 1997. On November 24, 1997, Kimball was sworn in as a United States District Judge. Kimball replaced the Honorable David K. Winder, who took senior status in June 1997. After twelve years as a full-time district court judge, Kimball took senior status on November 30, 2009. However, Kimball maintained a full case load until November 30, 2010. Kimball currently maintains a 60 percent case load and has resumed teaching part-time at BYU's J. Reuben Clark Law School.

During his time on the bench, Kimball has presided over many notable cases, such as the Brian David Mitchell criminal trial, case no. 2:08cr125DAK, and the second Main Street Plaza case, case no. 2:03cv688DAK. In the case of Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance v. Norton, Case No. 2:99cv852DAK, Judge Kimball's decision was reversed by the Tenth Circuit, but the United States Supreme Court then reversed the Tenth Circuit and affirmed Judge Kimball (9-0), Norton v SUWA, 542 U.S. 55 (2004). More than 800 of his memorandum decisions appear on Westlaw.

In 1999, Kimball sat by designation with the Tenth Circuit of Appeals, authoring two published opinions and two unpublished opinions: Zeran v. Diamond Broadcasting, Inc., 203 F.3d 714 (10th Cir, 2000); and United States v. Moore, 198 F.3d 793 (10th Cir. 1999); Hutchinson v. Pfeil, 201 F.3d 448 (10th Cir. 1999) (unpublished); Standard v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., 198 F.3d 258 (10th Cir. 1999) (unpublished).

In May 2009, to help with the congested dockets of a neighboring district, Kimball sat by designation in the United States District Court for the District of Idaho.