Judge William Alsup is a United States District Judge in San Francisco, California. He was born in Mississippi in 1945, and graduated from Mississippi State with a degree in mathematics in 1967, after which he attended Harvard where he earned a law degree plus a master’s degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government. In 1971-72, he clerked for Justice William O. Douglas of the United States Supreme Court and worked with Justice Douglas on the Abortion Cases and the “Trees Having Standing” case, among others. Alsup and his young family then returned to Mississippi, where he practiced civil rights law. He relocated to San Francisco, joining the law firm Morrison & Foerster in 1973 as a trial lawyer, a practice interrupted by two years of appellate practice as an Assistant to the Solicitor General in the United States Department of Justice (from 1978-80). In 1999, he was nominated by President Bill Clinton and confirmed by the Senate as a United States District Judge in San Francisco. He took the oath of office on August 17, 1999. This interview includes discussion about: growing up in Mississippi, attending Mississippi State, serving on the student YMCA and the Young Democrat boards, Harvard Law School and the Kennedy School of Government, clerking for Justice William O. Douglas, meeting his wife Suzan and family life, the civil rights movement, serving on the board of the Yosemite Association Board and the Yosemite Restoration Trust, backpacking and photography in the Sierras, pro bono work, major trials as a practicing attorney and as a federal judge, arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court, approach to the judicial role.