Phil Axt

On August 20, 2026, President Trump nominated Phil Axt to the United States District Court for North Dakota.

Biography 

Axt received a degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School in 2018.

Legal Experience

Axt has served as Solicitor General of North Dakota since 2023, where he oversees constitutional challenges to state laws and litigation against the federal government and other states. Previously, he worked as a litigation associate at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and clerked for Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Axt has never served as a judge.

Key Facts and Context 

• Served as lead appellate counsel defending North Dakota’s abortion ban and personally argued the case before the North Dakota Supreme Court. He later participated in a 2026 James Wilson Institute “Natural Law Jurisprudence” seminar on a panel titled “Dobbs and the Second Best Argument from History and Tradition: Abortion and the Courts.”

• Served as lead appellate counsel defending North Dakota’s restrictions on gender-affirming medical treatment for minors and personally argued the case before the North Dakota Supreme Court, which upheld the law.

• Served as lead appellate counsel in litigation brought by Native American tribes challenging North Dakota’s legislative map, arguing that Section 2 Voting Rights Act vote-dilution claims are not privately enforceable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

• Has led multistate challenges to federal environmental regulations and served as lead counsel for a 14-state coalition defending continued operation of the Dakota Access Pipeline in litigation brought by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

Membership and affiliations: 

• Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies (2015–present)

• John Marshall Fellow, Claremont Institute (2021)

• Gun Owners of America (2020–2026)

• National Rifle Association (2013–2026)

• American Legion (2017–2018)

• Yale Law Republicans, Co-President (2017–2018)