Trump's First Judicial Nomination Would Replace a Union-Side Labor Lawyer with a Baby Alito - Balls and Strikes

[In It to Win It]

Balls and Strikes

If you were crossing your fingers that President Donald Trump’s fixation on executive orders might mean he would forget about judicial nominations, welcome to the club of dashed hopes. Last week, he announced his first nominees of his second term: four district court nominees in Missouri, one to the Superior Court of Washington, D.C., and Whitney Hermandorfer to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Hermandorfer is a Federalist Society fever dream of a nominee. She works in the office of Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, on projects that include trying to overturn civil rights for trans people, defending Tennessee’s near-total abortion ban, and attacking birthright citizenship. At only 37, she could serve as a judge for 40 or 50 years. She’s basically a young version of Justices Samuel Alito or Amy Coney Barrett, both of whom she clerked for on the Supreme Court. She also clerked for Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he was an appeals court judge.

Hermandorfer would replace Judge Jane Branstetter Stranch, who is one of only three appeals court judges in the country who spent most of their careers as union-side labor lawyers. The contrast between Stranch and Hermandorfer highlights what a serious mistake Senate Democrats made last November, when they made a “deal” with Republicans over President Joe Biden’s remaining judicial nominees: In return for Republicans agreeing not to block the confirmations of about a dozen district court judges, Democrats gave up the chance to even try to confirm replacements to four appeals court seats, including Stranch’s.

Once Stranch takes senior status, the number of appeals court judges who spent the bulk of their careers as union-side labor lawyers will drop back to two, the same as when Biden took office. Meanwhile, as of 2022, more than half of the more than 300 active appeals court judges had spent the majority of their careers as corporate lawyers or prosecutors. This wild asymmetry is one of the reasons federal courts are so tilted towards the interests of the wealthy and powerful, and against those of workers and other regular people. Stranch’s departure and Hermandorfer’s elevation will make this imbalance even worse.