An attorney whose career has focused on prosecuting drug traffickers and a seasoned magistrate judge were named by President Joe Biden this week to fill vacancies in the Western District of Texas.
The nominees are Ernesto “Ernest” Gonzalez for the court in Del Rio and Judge Leon Schydlower for the court in El Paso. They were among nominees selected for judicial posts in Nebraska, Wyoming and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims on Dec. 19. The White House announcement said that the nominees are extraordinarily qualified and reflect the nation’s diversity in terms of personal and professional backgrounds.
Gonzalez this year became a senior attorney advisor in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, Narcotics and Dangerous Drug Section. He served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Texas from 2003 to 2023 and in the Western District from 2000 to 2003. Prior to that he worked as an assistant district attorney in Bexar County. Gonzalez received his J.D. from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University in 1993.
Schydlower has been a U.S. magistrate judge in El Paso since 2015. He worked as a solo practitioner from 2002 to 2015 and was a partner and associate at El Paso’s Kemp Smith from 2000 to 2002. Prior to that he was a special assistant U.S. attorney in Hawaii and a trial attorney on active duty in the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He also has served in the U.S. Air Force Reserve JAG Corps since 2010, where he is a lieutenant colonel. Schydlower received his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law in 1995.
If confirmed by the Senate — along with Magistrate Judge John A. Kazen, whose nomination for the Southern District court in Laredo was announced in August — the three candidates would be the first trial court judges in Texas appointed by Biden. Former president Donald Trump filled a large backlog of vacancies with 18 confirmations during his four years in office, according to a tally compiled by Wikipedia.
U.S. Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz have expressed support for the candidates, who were vetted by the bipartisan Federal Judicial Evaluation Committee that the senators use for judicial nominations. They addressed the appointees in a joint new release.
“With decades of experience in Texas courtrooms, Judge Leon Schydlower and Ernest Gonzalez have the legal acumen and institutional knowledge required to excel on the federal bench,” said Cornyn.
“Judge Schydlower has a wide range of experience, having served on the federal bench as a United States Magistrate Judge, as a federal prosecutor, as a Judge Advocate in both the Navy and the Air Force, and in private practice,” said Cruz. “Ernest Gonzalez has nearly three decades of legal experience, with hundreds of jury trials under his belt. Most of his career has focused on prosecuting cartels and other complex international drug trafficking cases. They have the experience to be effective U.S. district judges.”
Gonzalez prosecuted the 2023 convictions of two Mexican nationals for trafficking drugs including cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin through the Eastern District. The men, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute illegal drugs, received sentences of 25 and 27 years. In each case, the drugs were found in residences in the greater Dallas area. Federal investigators said the substances were sourced by individuals in Mexico with ties to the Sinaloa Cartel.
A decade ago, Gonzalez was involved in an unusual effort to target the source of cocaine by going after international drug traffickers. In 2013, then-U.S. Attorney John M. Bales announced indictments against 17 alleged members of a Colombian drug trafficking organization, some of whom were removed from Colombian prisons to face charges in Sherman.
Lee Yeakel, a former federal judge in Austin, said both nominees “look like good appointees” and will face large dockets, including a significant number of border-generated cases. Gonzalez’s criminal law experience will be valuable although he may need to study up on civil law, said Yeakel, who left in May after 20 years on the bench and is senior counsel at King & Spalding.
“There will be a learning curve for him just like a lot of times people with just a civil background who go on the bench have to learn about the criminal ins and outs,” he said. “It’s rarely if ever that somebody gets appointed or confirmed that knows everything about every aspect of the law. I had not done patent law and had to come up and learn patent law because we’ve got an increasing number of patent cases.”
Yeakel knows Judge Schydlower personally and thinks his experience on the bench will ease his transition.
“Being a magistrate judge puts you in a good position because you’re already familiar with the docket in an area,” Yeakel said. “The magistrate judges in an area are hired by the district judges so they’re usually hired solely on their ability. There’s not a political component.”
El Paso litigators who know Schydlower praise his even demeanor, writing skills and legal acumen.
Kemp Smith CEO Mark N. Osborn first met the future jurist as a young associate who handled insurance defense and medical malpractice cases for the firm.
“He’s very smart. He did a great job with us. He’s done a very good job as a magistrate,” said Osborn. “We’re glad it’s someone from El Paso and we’re certainly very happy it’s Judge Schydlower. He’ll make a great federal judge.”
Carl H. Green of Mounce, Green, Myers, Safi, Paxson & Galatzan has known Schydlower for 20 years.
“He’s got a tremendous amount of civil and criminal experience as an attorney and of course as a federal magistrate,” said Green. “He’s got the status of a veteran, which not many people in his generation have. I think that’s outstanding.”