Alabama’s LaCour Returns as US Judge Pick Following Failed Bid

President Donald Trump plans to nominate Alabama’s solicitor general for a federal judgeship in the state after the nomination stalled during his first term in the White House.

Edmund LaCour, who’s been the chief appellate lawyer for the state since 2019, is Trump’s choice for a seat on the US District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, the president announced in a social media post Tuesday.

Trump had nominated LaCour to the Middle District of Alabama in 2020 but he was blocked by then-Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.). LaCour, a 2011 Yale Law grad, was a partner at Kirkland & Ellis in Washington and a clerk for Judge William Pryor Jr. of the Eleventh Circuit.

As solicitor general, LaCour defended the state’s ban on transgender medical care for youth and its congressional district map before the US Supreme Court.

Trump also announced Tuesday plans to tap several state supreme court justices for federal trial courts in Alabama and Mississippi.

Bill Lewis, a justice on the Alabama Supreme Court, is Trump’s pick for a judgeship on the Middle District of Alabama. He previously served on the state’s Court of Civil Appeals and as a state-level prosecutor. Lewis is Trump’s first Black judicial nominee of his second term.

Trump also plans to tap Robert Chamberlin, a justice on Mississippi’s Supreme Court, for the Northern District of Mississippi. He previously served in the Mississippi state senate.

Justice James Maxwell of the Mississippi Supreme Court is Trump’s other choice for a federal judgeship on that trial court. He was previously a judge on the Mississippi Court of Appeals and a federal prosecutor in the Northern District.

Harold Mooty, a commercial litigator in Alabama, is Trump’s other intended nominee for a vacancy on the Northern District of Alabama.