Amanda Brailsford

Amanda Kathleen Brailsford is the chief United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Idaho. She previously served as a judge of the Idaho Court of Appeals from 2019 to 2023.

Education Born in Twin Falls, Idaho, Brailsford grew up in Hagerman. She received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Idaho in Moscow in 1989 and a Juris Doctor from its College of Law in 1993.

Career Following law school, Brailsford served as a law clerk for Judge Thomas G. Nelson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1993 to 1995. She assumed office in 2019 and left in 2023 to become a federal judge.

Also that year, Brailsford wrote the opinion for the court affirming Shoshone County Sheriff Darrell Gunderson's decision to deny a concealed weapons license to Robert Peterson. Gunderson disqualified Peterson due to his prior conviction of possessing material sexually exploiting children.

Federal judicial service

On January 18, 2023, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Brailsford to serve as a United States district judge of the U.S. District Court in Idaho. On January 31, 2023, her nomination was sent to the United States Senate. President Biden nominated Brailsford to the seat vacated by Judge B. Lynn Winmill, who assumed senior status on August 16, 2021. On March 22, 2023, a hearing on her nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee. On April 27, 2023, her nomination was reported out of committee by a voice vote. On May 4, 2023, the United States Senate confirmed her nomination by a voice vote. Brailsford received her judicial commission on May 17, 2023, and was sworn in on May 19, 2023. She is the first woman to serve on the U.S. District Court in Idaho. She became chief judge of the court in 2026.

Notable cases

In Creech v. United States District Court for the District of Idaho, Brailsford received calls to recuse herself from a lawsuit brought by death row inmate Thomas Eugene Creech alleging prosecutorial fabrication of evidence. Brailsford had a close personal friendship with Ada County Prosecutor Jan Bennetts, whose office oversaw the prosecution of Creech for the 1981 murder of inmate David Dale Jenson. While previously having clerked with and developed a friendship with Bennetts under Judge Thomas G. Nelson in 1993, Brailsford justified her lack of recusal by saying the two had "lost touch". Writing for a three judge panel for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Jay Bybee determined that, while Brailsford likely would have been able to hear the case in good faith, her impartiality would have been reasonably questioned due to the unique circumstances of the case, ultimately supporting her removal from the case.