AFJ Opposes Entire First Slate of Trump Judicial Nominees
WASHINGTON, D.C., May 28, 2025 – Alliance for Justice has released detailed research on each of Trump’s first judicial nominees of his second term, finding disturbingly extreme records and strong evidence of political loyalty to the president. AFJ is in turn calling for all of them to be strongly opposed in advance of their Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on June 4.
Whitney Hermandorfer, nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, has dedicated much of her career to attacking policies that protect civil rights and access to health care. Not only has she clerked for three of the Supreme Court’s conservative justices, but she has actively defended bans on abortion, discrimination against transgender youth, and Trump’s attacks on birthright citizenship, among others.
Joshua Divine, nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern and Western Districts of Missouri, has a similarly disturbing extreme record. He defended a Missouri law that tried to circumvent all federal gun violence protections, he has expressed support for discriminatory literacy tests at the polls, and he has also defended attacks on health care access for abortion and trans-affirming care. On top of it all, he doesn’t have the bare minimum amount of legal experience to be a judge (12 years) according to the American Bar Association’s standards.
Zachary Bluestone, nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, similarly lacks 12 years of legal experience, and most of what he has was working with Josh Hawley, then-attorney general of Missouri, in the politically-motivated “Federalism Unit” that attacked Obama-era protections for health care access, consumers, and the environment. He vociferously defended Justice Kavanaugh during his confirmation process despite accusations of sexual assault and defended a state law limiting state employees’ ability to unionize.
Cristian Stevens, nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, has demonstrated a consistent bias against workers while showing skepticism toward racial justice in the criminal justice system. He notably defended harsher punishments for crack cocaine, claiming the double standard would in fact benefit the Black communities who were facing mass incarceration as a result. On the state bench, he has repeatedly shown an interest in ruling in favor of corporations in cases where they’ve harmed or discriminated against workers.
Maria Lanahan, nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, has dedicated much of her career to working against civil rights. She fought to overturn access to mifepristone, a safe and common abortion medication; she has tried to undermine workers’ ability to organize and advocate for fair treatment; and she has advocated for anti-LGBTQ+ conversion therapy.
Alliance for Justice President Rachel Rossi issued the following statement:
“Alliance for Justice previously sounded the alarm that Trump’s judicial nominees would be more committed to his agenda than justice for all, and this first slate confirms our fears. At a time when the courts are one of the last bulwarks protecting democracy and our communities from this administration’s illegal overreaches, we can’t afford to add even more extremists to the bench. Every one of these nominees has demonstrated their opposition to the protections of the law and their loyalty to the Trumpian agenda. With lifetime appointments on the line, these nominees cannot be trusted to safeguard the Constitution. AFJ will continue to conduct robust research on nominees so extremists like these can be properly scrutinized.”
For more on AFJ’s extensive courts research, check out our: