Trump’s First Judicial Nominee Has Disturbing Extremist Record

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 2, 2025 – Just before midnight last night, President Trump announced on Truth Social his intent to nominate Whitney Hermandorfer to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, his first judicial nomination of his second administration. This morning, the Article III Project, a conservative group run by Trump ally Mike Davis, also claimed there would be four district court nominations in Missouri but quickly deleted that tweet. No official announcement has been made by the White House, but it appears new judicial nominations are coming, following the 234 confirmations from his first term.

Trump is nominating Hermandorfer to a vacancy on the Sixth Circuit to which President Biden had nominated Karla Campbell, an experienced plaintiff’s side labor attorney. Campbell’s nomination was abandoned last fall as part of a “deal” Senate Democratic leaders made to sacrifice any effort to confirm Biden’s remaining circuit court nominees.

Hermandorfer brings a record that is further proof Trump is focusing on installing loyalists committed more to his extreme agenda than upholding the rule of law. She has clerked for Samuel Alito (Supreme Court), Amy Coney Barrett (Supreme Court), and Brett Kavanaugh (D.C. Circuit), among others. As director of the strategic litigation unit for the Office of the Tennessee Attorney General, she has taken the lead on several major cases attacking civil rights. Perhaps most notably, she led litigation from several states challenging Biden’s Title IX guidance that including protections for transgender students and their inclusion in school activities. This is perhaps why Trump himself included a familiar and obvious anti-trans dog whistle in his announcement, expressing his expectation that she will uphold the discrimination his administration has already pushed through various executive orders.

Alliance for Justice Interim Co-President Keith Thirion issued the following statement:

“In this sloppy, haphazard rollout, Trump has already made clear that he’s not the least bit interested in protecting democracy, equal rights, or the rule of law. His priority instead is to give lifetime terms to conservative crusaders like Whitney Hermandorfer who will be loyal to him and his discriminatory authoritarian agenda at the expense of all of us. As courts across the country are holding back his onslaught of illegal actions, we must reject every nominee who would weaken the few surviving guardrails of our democracy. Trump has proven he does not deserve the benefit of the doubt, nor do his judicial nominees, when we already have 234 examples of his judges causing harm on the bench.

“Moreover, this seat shouldn’t even be vacant. Karla Campbell was an exceptional nominee who deserved to be confirmed last fall. The people of the Sixth Circuit deserved a judge with a track record of protecting their rights, not dismantling them. We look forward to every senator properly scrutinizing the records of nominees like Hermandorfer and doing everything they can to prevent anti-democratic extremists from ever taking the bench, especially for a vacancy they’re responsible for leaving open.”