WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump announced his first wave of his judicial nominees on Tuesday, a highly-anticipated event given the massive impact Trump had on the federal judiciary during his last administration.
The nominations comes as top Trump administration officials — and Trump himself — daily express their frustration with judges who immediately block the president’s orders. As recently as Wednesday morning, Trump posted on Truth Social: “Our Court System is not letting me do the job I was Elected to do. Activist judges must let the Trump Administration deport murderers, and other criminals who have come into our Country illegally, WITHOUT DELAY!!!”
Trump promised The Daily Signal’s Elizabeth Mitchell on Sunday evening that he would release his nominee names “rapidly,” noting, “We’re putting them in rapidly and trying to get very good ones.” Several nominees came from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office, Bailey pointed out on Wednesday, boasting: “Missouri is leading the way in restoring legal excellence to the federal bench.”
First came the nomination of Whitney D. Hermandorfer of Tennessee, a former clerk for Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, and Brett Kavanaugh, to serve as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Her nomination drew quick criticism from leftist critics and judicial groups, such as the Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights, which called her nomination “appalling.”
Trump described her as “a staunch defender of girl’s and women’s sports,” and Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) praised her career as “nothing short of outstanding,” dubbing her “a rising star in Tennessee.”
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in a statement that “Whitney Hermandorfer’s unwavering commitment to the rule of law, her exacting analytical rigor, and her unshakeable optimism will serve our country well.”
JCN’s Carrie Severino predicted that Trump’s other nominees will face criticism from left-wing groups as well, warning, “Expect to see more of the same duplicated attacks from the Left on the president’s judicial picks as we did with Hermandorfer.”
The Heritage Foundation’s Thomas Jipping offered a similar prediction: “Expect more of this mantra, with the name of the current nominee cut and pasted, in the months ahead.”
Trump also nominated a former clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas, Joshua M. Divine of Missouri, to serve as judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri and Western District of Missouri. Divine also previously served as chief counsel to Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley and is currently the Solicitor General of Missouri.
(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“Joshua has devoutly served the Great State of Missouri, as the State’s Solicitor General and, previously, as Chief Counsel to Senator Josh Hawley, a true Patriot,” the president said in a Truth Social post. “A former Clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Joshua knows what is required to protect the Rule of Law and Constitutional Rights for the Great People of Missouri. We must have Constitutionalist Judges now, more than EVER BEFORE. Congratulations Joshua!”
Trump tapped Zachary Bluestone to serve as judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. Bluestone (described by Trump as a “true legal warrior” as well as “tough, smart, and LOVES our great country”) is currently appellate chief and a violent crimes prosecutor in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri and previously served in the Missouri Attorney General’s Office as Deputy Solicitor General.
Maria A. Lanahan, the current principal deputy solicitor general in the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, has been nominated to serve as a judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, and Cristian M. Stevens, who served as first assistant attorney general and deputy attorney general of the criminal division in the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, is also nominated to serve as judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.
Trump described Stevens as “a Great Patriot,” and Lanahan as “a very Smart and Talented Lawyer” who “will do GREAT work in this new role.”
The last Trump nominee is Edward Aloysius O’Connell, whom Trump is nominating to serve as an associate judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. O’Connell is currently the chief of staff and deputy general council of the Office of the Inspector General of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. He has spent the past two decades serving as a prosecutor in the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia.
“Eddie will help fix Violent Crime in the City by restoring the RULE OF LAW to Washington, D.C.,” Trump posted on Wednesday evening. “Eddie served for nearly two decades as a Tough on Crime Prosecutor for the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, where he prosecuted many Horrific Crimes, including Homicides, Domestic Violence, Organized Crime, Narcotics Offenses, and more. D.C. could, and should, be a wonderful place, if political hacks would stop making such terrible decisions.”
“I know Eddie will help make everyone much safer,” the president added. “Congratulations Eddie!”
Demand Justice, one of the most vocal leftist activism groups opposing the president’s nominees, this week accused Trump’s nominees of having “extreme backgrounds” and arguing that their resumes “signal Trump’s intent to continue to transform the federal judiciary into another arm of the MAGA movement by appointing loyalist judges who will rubber stamp his most controversial and lawless policies.”
“These state AGs have aggressively used their offices to advance the MAGA agenda and, in one case, even to protect Trump himself from legal accountability,” the group argued.
“Trump’s first slate of nominees is exactly what we predicted–it includes loyalists who have a proven record of advocating for the kinds of radical policies featured in the Project 2025 agenda,” claimed Demand Justice Interim Executive Director Maggie Jo Buchanan. “While Trump and his allies continue to attack fair-minded jurists, he is also going after the independence of our courts by appointing politically motivated lawyers who will greenlight his extreme agenda from the bench.”
