James P. Gray has been a trial judge in Orange County, California since 1983. Before becoming a judge, he served as a Volunteer in the Peace Corps in Costa Rica, a staff judge advocate and criminal defence attorney in the Navy JAG Corps, a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, and a civil litigation attorney in a private law firm, in addition to being a Republican candidate for US Congress in 1998, and a Libertarian candidate for US Senate in 2004. Judge Gray has discussed issues of drug policy on more than two hundred television and radio shows and public forums all across the country. Using his experience on the bench and elsewhere, he has also authored
a book on the failed War on Drugs.