Justin Smith

On February 18, 2026, President Trump nominated Justin Smith to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

View/download the fact sheet here.

View/download the report here.

View/download the national letter of opposition here.

View/download the state letter of opposition here.

View/download Justin Smith at a glance.

Biography

Smith received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2007. In 2010, he graduated with a J.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Legal Experience

Smith currently serves as an attorney at a Missouri law firm, James Otis Law Group. Immediately after law school, he worked as an associate at Shook, Hardy, & Bacon, before serving as deputy counsel in the Missouri Governor’s Office. Smith then joined the Missouri Department of Agriculture as general counsel, before transitioning to the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, where he held several positions: assistant deputy attorney general for special litigation, deputy attorney for special litigation, chief of staff, and finally first assistant. Smith then worked as senior advisor in the United States Senate for 3 months before joining James Otis Law Group in his current position.

Key Facts & Context

Board Memberships

Smith serves as a board member on several organizations including the Yorktown Fund, First Principles Action, Publius Fund and the American Patriot Fighters.

• The Yorktown Fund shares the same address and suite number as First Principles Action.

• First Principles Action is a Nashville, Tennessee based 501(c)(4), which donated $1 million to Katherine Robertson’s 2026 campaign to be Alabama Attorney General.

• American Patriot Fighters. Smith also serves as the President and Secretary of the American Patriot Fighters, Inc. alongside Chris Jankowski and Cabbell Hobbs. Jankowski has been reported as “a Republican strategist who…recognized and exploited the anti-democratic loopholes within America’s rickety democracy in order to deliver Republicans victories that they could never win at the ballot box.” Cabell Hobbs is listed as “Treasurer.” In 2024, Hobbs was listed as “treasurer” for 85 political action committees.
• Publius Fund. Smith sits on the board of this organization, whose 2023 I-990 shows that its organization’s books are in care of Neil Corkery.

Select Cases

Throughout his career, both as a private attorney at the James Otis Law Group and while working in leadership roles at the Missouri Attorney General’s office, Smith advocated for extremist policies that undermine voting rights, attack civil rights, and tried to cut off access to reproductive care.

Trump Loyalist and Trump’s Personal Lawyer

Smith co-owns the James Otis Law Group, a far-right law firm that has represented President Trump in his personal matters. Smith and the James Otis Law Group played a big role in Trump’s 2024 presidential immunity case before the Supreme Court, where the Court ruled that Trump could not be prosecuted for “official” acts.

He is working to overturn the judgment entered against Trump in his E. Jean Carroll defamation and sexual abuse cases. With so many former James Otis Law Group attorneys serving in prominent roles within the Trump administration (for example, Solicitor General D. John Sauer, and White House staff secretary Will Scharf), Smith’s nomination risks further undermining the federal judiciary’s independence

Undermined Voting Rights

While working in leadership roles under then-Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, Smith supported Schmitt’s efforts to restrict Americans’ voting rights. In response to the 2020 election results, Attorney General Schmitt led a group of 10 state attorneys general in an effort to challenge the validity of Pennsylvania’s decision to count mail-in ballots received up to three days after Election Day. Smith also served as Attorney General Schmitt’s chief of staff when Schmitt, along with 16 Republican attorney generals, sued swing states Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin in an attempt to invalidate their 2020 electoral votes.

Anti-Access to Reproductive Care

At James Otis Law Group, Smith represented Arizona lawmakers who tried to block the state’s democratically adopted constitutional amendment enshrining Arizonans’ fundamental right to abortion. During his tenure at the Missouri Attorney General’s office, Smith also represented Randolph County Circuit Clerk Michelle Chapman, who repeatedly misinformed a 17-year-old pregnant teen that she could not obtain an abortion without parental consent despite Missouri law’s allowance of bypassing parental consent in certain instances. The clerk’s actions forced this teen to seek abortion care in Illinois.

Sides with Industry Interests Over Environmental Justice and Workers

While working for Governor Greitens, Smith supported efforts to weaken unions with “right-to-work” legislation that takes away workers’ ability to collectively bargain for fair wages, benefits, and respect on the job.

Across multiple Missouri state government roles, including while serving in leadership roles with the Missouri Department of Agriculture, Missouri Governor’s Office, and Missouri Attorney General’s Office, Smith advanced fossil-fuel friendly policies and challenged efforts to implement common-sense environmental regulations. Smith sided with agricultural industrial groups who challenged the EPA’s ban on chlorpyrifos in food crops. Studies continue to demonstrate that long-term exposure to this pesticide may double the risk of Parkinson’s Disease. While serving as Deputy AG, Smith supported industry efforts to weaken Missouri’s Clean Water Commission, which helps enforce water quality standards and issues permits for farmers, livestock, and industrial facilities.

Anti-Trans Litigation Efforts

Smith represented the American College of Pediatricians (deemed a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center) in an amicus brief defending the Missouri Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act. The so-called “SAFE” Act banned medically necessary gender affirming care for minors as well as any Medicaid coverage of those treatments. He also defended Arizona’s attempt to ban transgender girls from competing in high school sports consistent with their gender identity