Republican Recommends Trump Tap Black Female Litigator for Bench

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) has recommended a former assistant US attorney and longtime congressional aide to be the first Black woman nominated for a federal judgeship in President Donald Trump’s second term.

Sheria Clarke, now a partner at the law firm Nelson Mullins, was submitted to the White House for consideration as the nominee to fill the lone vacancy on South Carolina’s US district court, according to two people familiar with the senator’s decisionmaking.

Clarke served three years as a line prosecutor in South Carolina’s US attorney’s office. She’s also worked over a decade in the US House, including as staff director for the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform under the leadership of Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.). Scott and Gowdy have had a close friendship in their congressional careers.

The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment on the recommendation or whether they planned to nominate Clarke.

Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) office also didn’t return a request for comment on whether the senator supports the recommendation.

Trump has made 33 nominations in his second term so far, and most recently announced four tentative nominees for trial courts in Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Only one appointee, Bill Lewis, is Black. The Senate confirmed Lewis, a former Alabama state Supreme Court justice, to the Middle District of Alabama on Oct. 27.

Diversity didn’t seem to be a primary concern for Trump in filling judicial vacancies during his first presidency, and he hasn’t indicated that it would drive his appointment decisions this term.

He appointed two Black women to the federal bench last time, according to Federal Judicial Center data: Ada Brown for the Northern District of Texas; and Stephanie Dawkins for the Eastern District of Michigan. President Joe Biden later elevated Dawkins to the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

If nominated and confirmed, Clarke would be Trump’s fourth appointment to the court that’s currently evenly split between Republican and Democratic-tapped judges. She would replace Judge Robert Bryan Harwell, a George W. Bush appointee who took senior status in 2024.