Trump White House Lawyer, Professor Confirmed to Third Circuit

The Senate confirmed Jennifer Mascott, a Trump White House lawyer and administrative law scholar, to an appeals court judgeship in Delaware despite criticism of her limited ties to the state.

Mascott cleared the Republican-led chamber 50-47 to take a seat on the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which also covers New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The vote largely split on party lines, though Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voted against confirmation.

Mascott is the third Trump appellate pick confirmed this term, and the second to the Third Circuit following Justice Department attorney Emil Bove’s confirmation in June. Trump’s eight appointments over his two terms so far shift the balance on a court that was evenly divided between Republican and Democratic appointees under Joe Biden.

Delaware’s two Democrats rejected the nomination of the Washington-based law professor who’s been working in President Donald Trump’s White House Counsel’s Office. She isn’t admitted to practice law in Delaware, according to the Office of the Delaware Supreme Court. She owns property near a beach there, records show.

“Delaware is a special place, a special bar, and this nomination is norm shattering,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said before her committee vote.

Coons also raised questions about Mascott’s legal experience for a circuit that handles appeals from Delaware’s federal trial bench, a major venue for corporate and bankruptcy matters.

Legal Scholar

Mascott joined the second Trump administration this year, after she taught administrative and constitutional law at Catholic University of America and George Mason University. At Catholic Law, she founded the Separation of Powers Institute, which focuses on administrative and constitutional law scholarship.

During Trump’s first term, Mascott served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel and as an associate deputy attorney general. She also worked on the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, according to her law school bio.

“She has all the makings of an excellent judge, and I believe that the Third Circuit, and the country as whole, stand to benefit from her decades of service,” said former assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel Steven Engel in a support letter for Mascott.

Mascott clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas, as well as Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he served as a federal appeals court judge. She is one of several female former Kavanaugh clerks who testified in support of Kavanaugh’s high court confirmation as he faced sexual assault allegations, which he denied.

Trump in February had nominated Mascott as general counsel of the Department of Education, which he has since set out to abolish.

Mascott said at her Sept. 3 confirmation hearing that she looks forward to “joining the legal community, specifically in Delaware” and she plans to establish her chambers in Wilmington if confirmed.

Trump’s remaining appeals court nominees include Rebecca Taibleson, a federal prosecutor in Wisconsin; Eric Tung, a Jones Day partner and former Justice Department attorney; and Joshua Dunlap, a commercial litigator in Maine.

The president has had only six opportunities to shift the appeals court bench even further to the right this term. Judicial retirements have moved at a historically slow pace; only two circuit judges have announced plans to take a form of partial retirement and create a vacancy. Trump made 54 appeals court appointments in his first term.