Trump Yet to Announce Judicial Nominations in Some Red States

The White House has yet to announce nominees for district court vacancies in three states with two Republican senators as conservatives push to fill as many seats as possible before the midterm elections.

The seven vacancies are in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Ohio, after President Donald Trump on Thursday announced that he plans to nominate a former federal prosecutor for the lone vacancy in South Carolina.

Trump also said he’ll nominate Katie Lane, a senior legal counsel at the Republican National Committee, for a judgeship in Montana. She was previously deputy solicitor general for the state.

Trump has made 38 nominations to district and appeals courts in his second term so far. He’s only had between 40 and 50 vacancies to fill since his inauguration last year and as judicial retirements have also been limited. Trump named 71 nominees during the same time period in his first term, after entering office in 2017 with over 100 vacancies.

Among Republican-led states that haven’t seen nominations, senators have either sent some names to the White House or they’re still interviewing contenders.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, which has two district vacancies in Tulsa and Muskogee, respectively, told Bloomberg Law that he and Sen. James Lankford have forwarded a few suggestions.

Kansas senators Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall sent a slate of names for two vacancies in Kansas City and Wichita, the lawmakers said.

Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio said they’re still conducting interviews for a vacancy in Columbus. The state has two vacancies, including another in Cleveland.

The White House and Texas senators have gradually filled vacancies in the state, which typically has the most vacancies among Republican-led states given its size. There are nine remaining vacancies and two with pending nominees. Trump has made three nominations total there.

Midterm Stakes

November congressional midterms raise the stakes even further, as senators spend more time in their states and less time at the Capitol. The results could chip away at Republicans’ 53-47 Senate majority.

Despite shared party, it’s not uncommon for the Trump White House and Senate Republicans to not see eye-to-eye on some picks for judgeships. Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told Bloomberg Law that so far the president, at times, “disagrees with the names that Republican senators have submitted.”

Trump has also become more involved in the nomination process, speaking with potential nominees personally or calling them to share his decision to nominate them.

The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment on the vacancies.

To speed Trump’s appointment push, conservatives have pushed for Grassley to eliminate the decades-long tradition within the committee that requires that district court nominees get approval from their home state senators in order to advance.

But Grassley and Senate Republicans have little appetite for destroying the so-called blue slip practice that preserves their control over who becomes a district judge or US attorney in their state. Any nominee without that support isn’t likely to make it out of committee anyway, said Mike Fragoso, who’s the former chief counsel for then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

Moving the process along faster is going to “take the White House and senators just coming to the table and negotiating and compromising,” said Fragoso, who’s now a partner at Torridon Law.