Jose S. Castillo

Governor Gavin Newsom nominated Justice Jose S. Castillo to the Court of Appeal in February 2023. Justice Castillo was confirmed two months later.

Justice Castillo was born in Mexico and moved to the United States as a child. At age seventeen, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was stationed at Marine Corps Air Stations Iwakuni, Japan and Miramar. After his honorable discharge following four years of military service, Justice Castillo pursued higher education. He received degrees from Santa Rosa Junior College; California State University, Sacramento; and University of California, Davis School of Law, becoming the first college graduate and lawyer in his family.

Justice Castillo has dedicated his career to serving the public. After law school, he clerked for the Honorable Micaela Alvarez of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas for one year. Justice Castillo spent the next three years as a staff attorney with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco. He then served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California for a decade—prosecuting cartels, gangs, and narcotics and immigration offenses—until his 2020 appointment to the San Diego Superior Court, where he served as a judge in a family law department.

Active in the community, Justice Castillo volunteers with various charitable and non-profit organizations, including Judges in the Classroom, San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association Scholarship Fund, Lawyers Club of San Diego, San Diego County Bar Association, and Just the Beginning – A Pipeline Organization. Justice Castillo helped launch Just the Beginning’s San Diego Summer Legal Institute, a free five-day immersion program that exposes local high school students to the judiciary and legal profession and encourages them to pursue advanced degrees and careers in the law. 

Justice Castillo currently serves as a member of two Judicial Council of California committees: the Appellate Advisory Committee and the Advisory Committee on Providing Access and Fairness.

Outside the courtroom, Justice Castillo enjoys long-distance running and spending time outdoors with family and friends.