Trump Announces First Judicial Pick of Term
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President Donald Trump announced the first judicial pick of his second term late last week in the chaotic disregarding of processes and norms that’s come to define Trump’s first 100 days in office.
In a near-midnight post on Truth Social, Trump declared that he was nominating attorney Whitney Hermandorfer to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
Hermandorfer, a 2015 graduate of the George Washington University Law School, clerked for both Justices Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett at the Supreme Court. She was also a clerk for Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he served on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Hermandorfer later became the director of the strategic litigation unit in Tennessee Attorney General’s Office. Hermandorfer later became the director of the strategic litigation unit in the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office.
Though clerking for Alito, Barrett, and Kavanaugh are clear signs of Hermandorfer’s conservative, Federalist Society credentials, it’s Hermandorfer’s role in the Tennessee AG’s office that offers the most insight into why Trump tapped her to fill the vacant bench seat. Hermandorfer, who headed strategic litigation in the office, was one of Tennessee’s authors on a brief that the Supreme Court submitted supporting Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship. The Court will hear the arguments in this case next week. The litigator also argued against a Biden-era policy that included transgender students in anti-discrimination regulations, and opposed the enforcement of a federal rule under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act that would require states to provide government employees coverage for abortions.
“As a direct result of Trump’s judicial appointments from his first term, our country has become less safe and critical freedoms have been ripped from us,” said Maggie Jo Buchanan, the interim executive director Demand Justice, in a press release. The Administration and its Allies are actively circumventing rule of law and threatening judges that rule against them. It should be clear that Trump will prioritize judicial nominations that put personal loyalty above the law. This would be unheard of in any other administration. Trump 2.0 is a world where ignoring norms and boundaries, as well as governing with chaos, are routine. It’s anyone’s guess as to when the Senate will take up Hermandorfer’s nomination.
