Gabriel P. Sanchez

On October 20, 2022, Sanchez wrote for a unanimous panel in favor of a whistleblower who leaked that SpecPro told him to violate the law when investigating the environmental impact of a U.S. Army project. Sanchez wrote that it is important to "encourage workplace whistleblowers to report unlawful acts without fear of retaliation."

On September 8, 2021, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Sanchez to serve as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. On September 20, 2021, his nomination was sent to the Senate. President Biden nominated Sanchez to the seat to be vacated by Judge Marsha Berzon, who will assume senior status upon confirmation of a successor. On November 3, 2021, a hearing on his nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee. During his confirmation hearing, Republican senators questioned him about his role in the creation of Proposition 57 in 2016, which allowed for earlier parole for most inmates in California. On December 2, 2021, his nomination was reported out of committee by a 12–10 vote. On December 17, 2021, the United States Senate voted 44–24 to invoke cloture on his nomination. On January 12, 2022, Sanchez was confirmed by a 52–47 vote. He received his judicial commission on January 24, 2022.

In October 2018, Sanchez was nominated by Governor Brown to serve as an Associate Judge of the California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, filling the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Robert L. Dondero. His nomination was confirmed by the California Commission on Judicial Appointments on November 26, 2018, making Sanchez the first Latino to serve on that court. His service on the state court terminated when he was commissioned as a federal judge.

Sanchez helped draft the Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act of 2016. The act allowed certain non-violent defendants to be considered for parole, and established sentence credits for rehabilitation, good behavior, and education.

Sanchez served as a law clerk for Judge Richard Paez of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 2005 to 2006. He was an associate at Munger, Tolles & Olson from 2006 to 2011, where he litigated civil matters at the trial and appellate levels. From 2011 to 2012, he worked as a deputy attorney general in the correctional law section of the California Attorney General's office. From 2012 to 2018, he worked as Deputy Legal Affairs Secretary under Governor Jerry Brown.

A Los Angeles native, Sanchez graduated from Harvard-Westlake School in 1994. He received his Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from Yale College in 1998, his Master of Philosophy in European Studies from the University of Cambridge in 2000 and he received his Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 2005. He was a Fulbright Scholar in 1999 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Gabriel Patrick Sanchez (born Gabriel Nathan Sanchez, 1976) is an American lawyer and judge who is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He served an associate judge of the California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District from 2018 to 2022.