The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
President Trump Makes First Judicial Nomination of Second Term
President Trump's first judicial nomination of his second term clerked for Justices Alito and Barrett (and then-Judge Kavanaugh)
Last night, President Trump announced his intent to nominate Whitney Hermandorfer, Director of Strategic Litigation on the Tennessee Attorney General's Office, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She will replace Judge Jane Stranch. This is the first judicial nomination of Trump's second term, and the announcement came late last night in a post on Truth Social.
Hermandorfer has strong and fairly conventional qualifications for a judicial nomination in a Republican Administration. Prior to joining the Tennessee AG's office worked at Williams & Connolly). She also clerked for both Justices Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court, as well as for then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and district court Judge Richard Leon. She was first in her class and Editor-in-Chief of the law review at the George Washington University Law School and was graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University, where she was also co-captain of the Women's Varsity Basketball team. (N.B. I believe Hermandorfer is the first Trump judicial nominee to have clerked on the Supreme Court for one of Trump's Supreme Court nominees.)
After this nomination, there are five remaining current or pending appellate vacancies awaiting nominations: One on the First Circuit, two on the Third Circuit, one on the Seventh Circuit, and one on the Ninth Circuit. There are also fifty-five district court openings.
