By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
U.S. District Judge Alia Moses has been named chief judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.
Moses spoke to the 830 Times about the position in a recent interview.
“There are 94 districts in the country, so (as a chief judge) you become one of 94, and the way you become chief judge is you’re the next in line in seniority under the age of 65, so I was the next in line to our past chief, Orlando Garcia. He finished his term, so I was the next-most senior judge, and I’m not 65 yet, so that’s how it fell to me,” Moses said.
She said the position definitely includes more work.
“Right now, my criminal caseload is about 3,500 defendants. Of course, I’m getting all the civil cases from the Uvalde shooting in my court because Uvalde’s in the Del Rio Division,” Moses said.
She explained the chief judge is the chief executive officer for the district.
“It’s a lot of telephone calls. It’s a lot of meetings. It’s a lot of forming committees. It’s a lot of that kind of stuff. You don’t have any more power, necessarily, or authority over the other judges, but you do have the administrative and budgetary authority, as everything that has to do with administration and budgets has to go through the chief,” Moses said.
Moses said as chief judge she will oversee all of the court’s units such as probation, pre-trial, the clerk’s offices, the magistrate judges and the district judges.
“Anything that falls under the purview of the courts, falls under the administrative powers of the chief judge, so to speak,” she added.
Moses noted the Western District encompasses six divisions in addition to the Del Rio Division and includes a large slice of Texas.
“It includes divisions for Waco, Austin, San Antonio, Del Rio, Pecos, Midland-Odessa and El Paso. We have 13 active district judge slots and 16 magistrate judges as well, in addition to all of probation, all of the clerk’s offices, and the federal public defenders offices, administratively, technically, fall under the courts,” she said.
Moses said the chief judge’s tenure lasts for a maximum of seven years.
“But if I were to take senior status before then, I (would) give up the slot or if I don’t turn 70 before the seven years are complete. If I were to turn 70, I would have to give up the slot. The question is whether when I will take senior status or retire,” she said.
Moses, a native of Eagle Pass, downplayed the fact she is the female chief judge in the Western District.
“The reason for that is that I was the first woman to have been appointed to the court. I was the first resident judge in Del Rio, the first female district judge and the first chief, now. I didn’t set out to be the first of anything, to tell you the truth,” Moses said.
“I think the most important thing for me is that this made me realize it doesn’t matter where you came from or what your background is, if you work hard and do the best you can in your work, everything will eventually fall into place, and people will look to you, and that’s my job, to do the best I can do in any given situation,” she added.
Moses is the eleventh chief judge for the district in its history. She served as a part-time magistrate judge in the Del Rio Division from 1997 to 2000 and as a magistrate judge here from 2000 to 2002.
President George W. Bush nominated Moses as a district judge for the Western District in late 2002, and the Senate confirmed her nomination a few months later.
Moses has also served as assistant U.S. attorney and chief of the Del Rio Division for the Western District from 1990 to 1997. Before joining the federal system, she worked as an attorney in the Travis County Attorney’s Office in Austin.
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