Litigator Erin Hawley Said to Be Interested in Circuit Judgeship

A Trump-appointed trial judge and a senior Justice Department official are included on a White House list of candidates interviewing for a federal appeals court seat in Missouri, a person familiar with the judicial selection process said.

Those candidates for a spot on the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit include US District Judge Sarah Pitlyk of the Eastern District of Missouri and Jesus Osete, principal deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

Prominent conservative litigator and US Senate spouse Erin Hawley has also expressed interest in the new vacancy, the person who spoke on the condition of anonymity told Bloomberg Law.

Erin Hawley, a lead attorney in the conservative movement’s anti-abortion litigation and wife of Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), conveyed interest in the new vacancy through intermediaries with White House contacts, the person said.

If confirmed, President Donald Trump’s nominee for the seat would replace Judge Duane Benton, a George W. Bush appointee who plans to assume a form of partial retirement when a successor is confirmed.

The White House, Erin Hawley, and the other potential candidates didn’t return requests for comment on the selection process.

Josh Hawley—a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee that vets judicial nominees—deferred to his spouse when asked if she’d expressed interest in the judgeship.

But he did say that he wouldn’t recuse himself from the vetting process if she were under consideration. Republicans lead the panel with a 12-10 majority.

“Why would I recuse myself from voting for someone who I think would be terrific?” he told Bloomberg Law.

Erin Hawley, as senior counsel at the Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, has been a leading figure in the legal fights to restrict abortion access.

For her Supreme Court debut last year in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, she argued the justices should limit access to the widely used abortion pill, mifepristone. Hawley represented a group of anti-abortion doctors who sought to roll back decisions the Food and Drug Administration took to broaden access to the drug, including a 2021 decision approving distribution by mail.

The justices preserved access to the drug in a unanimous decision but stopped short of affirming the FDA’s decisions to loosen restrictions on mifepristone.

Hawley was also part of the Alliance Defending Freedom team that aided Mississippi’s successful bid to overturn the constitutional right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Crowded Field

Those seeking the judgeship face a crowded field of conservative lawyers and judges with ties to the Missouri legal system.

Pitlyk clerked for Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he served on the DC Circuit. At the time of her confirmation, she faced criticism for her anti-abortion advocacy as an attorney with the Thomas More Society. She also was deemed unqualified by the American Bar Association for a lifetime judicial appointment based on her lack of trial experience at the time.

Osete was previously Missouri’s deputy solicitor general. He represented the state at the high court in its challenge to the Biden administration’s Covid-19 vaccine requirement for health care workers at facilities that participate in Medicare and Medicaid, barring individual medical or religious exemption.

Trump’s six appellate appointments since returning to office in January include a law professor, a prosecutor, and private attorneys.

The Eighth Circuit is dominated by judges appointed by Republican presidents, including Trump’s four appointees in his first term.