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Donald Trump just made the first judicial appointment of his second term [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-05-02
Trump has nominated Whitney Downs Hermandorfer, a lawyer in the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office, to be a federal judge, the first such appointment of Trump’s second term.
Hermandorfer, just 37 years old, has clerked for Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito, and Amy Coney Barrett. She has also worked in private practice at the firm Williams and Connolly, a firm known for defending white collar criminals. Williams and Connolly’s clients include tech giants Amazon, Google, and Microsoft as well as pharmaceuticals giant Merck.
Hermandorfer, in her role as Director of the Strategic Litigation Unit of the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office, has fought in court to make sure that transgender students are excluded from federal Title IX protections against gender-based discrimination.
Hermandorfer is being nominated to serve as a Circuit Judge on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Courts of appeals are the second stage of appeal in the United States federal judiciary. After your case is finished at the lowest level, the district court level, you can appeal to a circuit court, where a judge can review your case. Appeals courts are below the Supreme Court, making appeals courts very powerful in deciding what the law is.
Circuit Courts cover various geographic areas of the country. The Sixth Circuit hears cases on appeal coming out of Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
Hermandorfer is being nominated to succeed 71-year-old Judge Jane Branstetter Stranch, who was appointed to the court in 2010 by former President Barack Obama. The court currently has 7 Democrat judges and 9 Republican judges. If confirmed, Hermandorfer will flip a liberal seat and shift the court to 6 Democrats and 10 Republicans, moving the already-Republican court further to the right.
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