Trump Judicial Nominations

President Trump announced the nomination of Ed Artau, currently a judge for Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal, to serve as a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Artau has helped give Trump a legal win against the free press, has deep ties to the right-wing Federalist Society, and has repeatedly sided with big corporations and investors.

President Trump announced the nomination of Zachary Bluestone to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. Bluestone is the appellate chief in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri and was previously a deputy solicitor general in the Missouri Attorney General’s office.

President Trump announced the nomination of Emil Bove to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. As Trump’s former defense attorney and a senior official in the Justice Department, Bove has shown his unwavering loyalty to Trump through longshot, dubious legal arguments.

President Donald Trump has nominated David Alan Bragdon to serve as a federal judge on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. According to Bragdon’s LinkedIn profile, he has spent the past 18 years as a federal prosecutor and has previously clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, whom Bragdon has defended in light of revelations that Thomas had accepted nearly $1.8 million worth of gifts from right-wing billionaire Harlan Crow, including luxury vacations and valuable historical artifacts.

In August 2025, Trump nominated Mississippi Supreme Court justice Robert “Bobby” Chamberlin to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi. Chamberlin has served on the Mississippi Supreme Court since 2016 and previously served on the 17th Circuit District & as a state senator.

President Donald Trump nominated Louisiana Supreme Court Justice William “Will” Crain to serve as a federal judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Crain has served on the Louisiana Supreme Court since late 2019, after serving on the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal from 2013 to 2019 and as a judge on the Twenty-Second Judicial District Court from 2009 to 2013. Before his judicial career, Crain maintained a general litigation practice for 22 years and earned his law degree from Louisiana State University’s Paul M. Hebert Law Center in 1986. He is also a member of the Federalist Society and participated in events hosted by the organization.

President Trump announced the nomination of Joshua Divine to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri and Western District of Missouri. As solicitor general in the Missouri Attorney General’s office, Divine has shown his blind loyalty to Trump despite the President’s unconstitutional actions. Divine has been an active participant in judge-shopping right-wing extremist cases in order to further restrict reproductive rights.

President Trump announced the nomination of Kyle Dudek to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Dudek has less than three years of experience as a magistrate judge, serving in the Middle District of Florida Court since 2022.  

Joshua D. Dunlap, nominated to the First Circuit Court of Appeals, has spent most of his 16-year career at Pierce Atwood LLP defending large corporations in complex litigation. He previously interned with the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Southern Poverty Law Center–designated hate group, and has voiced support for the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Chevron.

In August 2025, President Donald Trump nominated Lindsey Freeman to fill a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. Freeman worked in the Department of Justice in the Office of Legal Policy and as Deputy Associate Attorney General in the first Trump Administration, and has previously held positions as a corporate attorney and a federal prosecutor.

President Trump announced the nomination of John Guard to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. As chief deputy attorney general in Florida, Guard has helped carry out Florida’s extreme culture wars.

On Thursday, May 1st, in a near-midnight post on TruthSocial, President Trump announced that Whitney Hermandorfer would be the first judicial nominee of his second term. Hermandorfer, who, if confirmed, would be among the youngest circuit court judges in recent memory, runs a strategic litigation unit in the Tennessee Attorney General’s office. In this role, she has defended many of President Trump’s unconstitutional actions and championed causes favored by right-wing extremists and corporate special interests.

In August 2025, President Trump announced the nomination of Edmund LaCour to the Northern District of Alabama. LaCour has served as the solicitor general of Alabama since 2019, where he has led the state in extreme anti-abortion, anti-trans, and anti-civil rights lawsuits. Previously, he was a partner at Kirkland & Ellis and worked at Bancroft PLLC and Baker Botts LLP.

President Trump announced the nomination of Maria Lanahan to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. As principal deputy solicitor general in the Missouri Attorney General’s office, Lanahan has defended Missouri in a series of right-wing culture war cases.

In August 2025, President Trump announced the nomination of Bill Lewis, an associate justice on the Alabama Supreme Court, to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama. Before serving on the Alabama Supreme Court, he was a judge on the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals and a prosecutor and later judge for Alabama’s Nineteenth Judicial Circuit, where he primarily focused on criminal cases. Judge Lewis’s nomination to the federal judiciary is his third nomination to a higher court in the last 16 months.

President Trump nominated Jennifer Mascott, currently senior counsel in the White House counsel’s office, to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Mascott served in the Department of Justice during the first Trump administration and has recently worked at conservative law schools, focusing on the administrative state and separation of powers. Although nominated to a Delaware seat on the Third Circuit, Mascott is not admitted to practice law in Delaware and has few ties to the state or the circuit court. Following Emil Bove’s nomination, Mascott’s nomination represents the second Trump ally appointed to the Third Circuit.

In August 2025, President Trump nominated Mississippi Supreme Court justice James Maxwell II to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi. Maxwell has served on the Supreme Court since 2016, and previously served on the Mississippi Court of Appeals and at the Department of Justice.

William “Bill” Mercer, nominated to the U.S. District Court of Montana, is a Holland & Hart partner focused on environmental litigation. As a state legislator, he backed anti-abortion and anti-trans measures and sought to end voter elections for state Supreme Court justices. His legal work includes representing Greg Gianforte, oil and mining interests, and plaintiffs in a landmark case expanding public funding for religious schools. As U.S. attorney, he faced sharp criticism for politically motivated prosecutions and mismanagement.

President Trump announced the nomination of Chad Meredith to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. As solicitor general in the Kentucky Attorney General’s office, Meredith has defended Kentucky’s extreme anti-abortion laws. As former governor Matt Bevin’s counsel, Meredith was involved in Bevin’s controversial pardons of convicted killers and sex offenders. Meredith’s previous consideration to the court was met with vehement opposition, and his selection is no less dangerous in 2025.

President Donald Trump has nominated Ron DeSantis-appointed Judge Anne-Leigh Gaylord Moe to fill a seat on the District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Ahead of Judge Moe’s confirmation hearings, Americans should take note of the following information.

In August 2025, President Trump nominated Harold “Hal” Mooty to the Northern District of Alabama. Mooty is a partner at the law firm Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP, where he focuses on contract disputes and business torts with a focus on health care clients accused of “medical malpractice and civil rights violations.” Mooty is the son of lawyer and fossil fuel lobbyist Harold Dean Mooty Jr., who lobbied for Petroleum Convenience Marketers of Alabama. Mooty would likely be a conservative voice on the bench for decades to come.

In August 2025, President Trump announced the nomination of Matthew Orso to the Western District of North Carolina. Orso is a partner at Troutman Pepper Locke where he represents clients subject to regulatory oversight, including from the DOJ, SEC, and IRS.

President Trump announced the nomination of Jordan E. Pratt for the Middle District of Florida. Pratt, who has sat on the Florida Fifth District Court of Appeal since April 2023, has ties to extremist right-wing groups, like the First Liberty Institute and Alliance Defending Freedom. As both a litigator and appellate judge, Pratt has sought to restrict abortion as well as access to the ballot box.

In August 2025, President Trump announced the nomination of Susan Courtwright Rodriguez to the Western District of North Carolina. In April 2023, Rodriguez was sworn in as a magistrate judge in the Western District of North Carolina. Previously, she was a partner at McGuireWoods LLP where she co-led the firm’s financial institutions industry team and represented clients in government investigations.

President Trump announced the nomination of Cristian Stevens to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. In 2021, Stevens was appointed to the Missouri Court of Appeals – Eastern District. Before that, he clerked in the Eighth Circuit and worked at several St. Louis law firms. Stevens was a federal prosecutor for 15 years at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri, where he led the investigation into the shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer.

Rebecca Taibleson, whom President Donald Trump has nominated to fill a seat on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, is a conservative political insider who has worked as a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Wisconsin and as Assistant to the Solicitor General from 2019-2022 under the first Trump Administration.

Eric Tung, nominated to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, is a Jones Day partner specializing in appellate work for corporate and conservative clients. He has represented crypto firms fighting regulation, anti-abortion advocate Jonathan Mitchell, and groups backing the fringe independent state legislature theory. Tung has also defended major industry groups, including the California Hospital Association, UPS, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and has expressed regressive views on women’s rights.

On September 26, 2025, President Donald Trump nominated Alexander Coker Van Hook to serve as a federal judge on the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, the same district where Van Hook spent his entire 26-year legal career as a federal prosecutor. Van Hook joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 1999 and steadily rose through leadership positions including Assistant U.S. Attorney, Deputy Criminal Chief, Special Counsel, First Assistant U.S. Attorney, and lead attorney for the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, concentrating on public corruption, asset forfeiture, money laundering, and white-collar crimes. At the time of his nomination, Van Hook was serving as Acting United States Attorney, overseeing all criminal and civil cases across 42 of Louisiana’s 64 parishes.