Trump Plans to Nominate Tennessee Litigator to Sixth Circuit (3)

President Donald Trump plans to nominate Tennessee state litigator Whitney Hermandorfer to the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, the first judicial nominee of his new term.

Trump made the announcement in a Truth Social post Thursday night. He said the former Big Law attorney and clerk to conservative Supreme Court justices was a “Fighter who will inspire confidence in our Legal System.”

If confirmed, Hermandorfer would preside in Nashville on the court covering Tennessee, Ohio, Kentucky, and Michigan. She would replace Jane Branstetter Stranch, an Obama appointee who announced last year that she planned to step away from active service upon the confirmation of a successor.

“The President could not have selected a better individual to be his first judicial nomination this term, and I look forward to swiftly advancing Whitney’s nomination through the Senate Judiciary Committee and onto the Senate floor to get her confirmed,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said in a statement.

Hermandorfer directs the strategic litigation unit for the Tennessee attorney general’s office. State Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in a post on X that Trump “selected a lawyer’s lawyer,” and praised her “exacting analytical rigor, and her unshakeable optimism.”

She notably defended Tennessee’s near total ban on abortions in instances when life-threatening pregnancy complications arise and challenged a Biden-era rule prohibiting discrimination against transgender students under Title IX. Trump called the former Princeton basketball player a “staunch defender of Girls’ and Women’s sports.”

Conservative legal figures united around Hermandorfer’s selection. Ed Whelan, of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, said in a post on X that Trump “made quite an impressive mark with his first appellate pick.” Conservative legal advocate Mike Davis, also on X, called her a “brilliant legal mind and committed constitutionalist.”

The 2015 George Washington University law grad clerked for Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett. She also clerked for Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he was on the DC Circuit.

While at Williams & Connolly in Washington, Hermandorfer focused on appellate and administrative-law litigation.

Trump has six appellate vacancies to fill. His prospective nominees include solicitors general and other lawyers who’ve opposed Biden policies in court.

Branch didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on her senior status plans when contacted through the circuit executive’s office.

Joe Biden’s nomination for the vacancy was derailed at the tail end of his presidency by a Senate deal struck between the then-Democratic majority and Republicans to advance votes on district court nominees while abandoning four pending appellate picks.

Trump appointed 234 judges to federal courts in his first term, including 54 to appellate seats as well as Kavanaugh, Barrett, and Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.