Latest news with #WhitneyHermandorfer
Wall Street Journal
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Emil Bove and the Trump Judiciary
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted out Emil Bove's nomination to be a judge on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday, with Democrats walking out in protest. Less remarked, given her sterling credentials, was the Senate's 46-42 vote Monday to send Whitney Hermandorfer to the Sixth Circuit. The contrast could make a difference for President Trump. The concerns about Mr. Bove's nomination aren't frivolous. He was at the center of the Justice Department turbulence after Mr. Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport illegal aliens without due process. At a March 14 meeting, discussing the possibility that a judge could block those removals, 'Bove stated that DOJ would need to consider telling the courts 'f— you' and ignore any such court order.' That's according to a 'whistleblower' letter by a former government lawyer. Testifying to the Senate, Mr. Bove didn't exactly deny uttering such a thing. 'I did not suggest,' he said, 'that there would be any need to consider ignoring court orders. At the point in that meeting, there were no court orders to discuss.' What about floating that the Justice Department might tell the judiciary to eff off? 'I don't recall,' Mr. Bove said. Doesn't this seem like something a top official would remember saying, or not? The whistleblower then released communications to back up his account. One is a text message from March 15, as Mr. Trump's deportation flights to El Salvador were about to land. 'Guess its find out time on the 'f— you,'' the lawyer wrote his supervisor. The boss's reply: 'Yup. It was good working with you.'
Reuters
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Republican-led US Senate confirms Trump's first second-term judicial nominee
WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump secured approval of his first judicial nominee of his second term, as the U.S. Senate confirmed a former law clerk to three members of the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority to a seat on a federal appeals court. The Republican-led Senate voted 46-42 along party lines in favor of Whitney Hermandorfer, a lawyer serving under Tennessee's attorney general, to be appointed as a life-tenured judge on the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. She is the first of 15 judicial nominees the president has announced to date to secure Senate approval, as Trump and his Republican allies in the Senate look to add to the 234 judicial appointments Trump made in his first term. With Hermandorfer's confirmation, Trump tied former President Joe Biden's total of 235 judicial appointments. Such appointments could help Trump further shift the ideological balance of the judiciary to the right at a moment when White House officials have accused judges who have blocked parts of his immigration and cost-cutting agenda they have found to be unlawful of being part of a "judicial coup." Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune, ahead of a procedural vote on Hermandorfer's nomination on Thursday, said the goal was to fill around 50 judicial vacancies on the bench with judges who "understand the proper role of a judge." He said judges should "understand that their job is to interpret the law, not usurp the job of the people's elected representatives by legislating from the bench." Hermandorfer clerked for Supreme Court justices Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett, and clerked for Justice Brett Kavanaugh while he was a judge on a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. Barrett and Kavanaugh were appointed to the Supreme Court in Trump's first term, giving it a 6-3 conservative majority. Hermandorfer has been leading a strategic litigation unit in Republican Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti's office, where she defended the state's near-total abortion ban and challenged a rule adopted under Biden barring discrimination against transgender students. Senate Democrats had argued that Hermandorfer, 38, who is just a decade out of law school, lacked sufficient legal experience to join the bench and had shown a willingness to support extreme legal positions supporting Trump's agenda.
CTV News
14-07-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
Senate confirms Trump's first judicial nominee of his second term
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate has confirmed U.S. President Donald Trump's first judicial pick of his second term, voting to approve Whitney Hermandorfer as a judge for the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The confirmation of Hermandorfer, who worked for Tennessee's attorney general, comes after the Democratic-led Senate under former President Joe Biden confirmed 235 federal judges and the Republican-led Senate in Trump's first term confirmed 234 federal judges. The two presidents each worked to reshape the judiciary, with Trump taking advantage of a high number of judicial vacancies at the end of former U.S. President Barack Obama's term and Democrats working to beat Trump's number after he had the opportunity to nominate three U.S. Supreme Court justices. So far in his second term, Trump has fewer vacancies to fill. While he inherited more than 100 vacancies from Obama, who was stymied by a Republican Senate in his final two years, Trump now has 49 vacancies to fill out of almost 900 federal judgeships. U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said last week that the Senate would work to quickly confirm Trump's judicial nominees, even though 'we're not facing the number of judicial vacancies this Congress we did during Trump's first term.' Hermandorfer, who was confirmed 46-42 along party lines, has defended many of Trump's policies as director of strategic litigation for Tennessee's attorney general, including his bid to end birthright citizenship. Democrats and liberal judicial advocacy groups criticized her as extreme on that issue and others, also citing her office's defense of the state's strict abortion ban. Before working for the Tennessee Attorney General, she clerked for three Supreme Court justices. But at her confirmation hearing last month, Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware criticized what he called a 'striking brevity' of court experience since Hermandorfer graduated from law school a decade ago. Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Monday that Trump is only focused on 'a nominee's perceived loyalty to him and his agenda — and a willingness to rule in favor of him and his administration.' The Judiciary panel is scheduled to vote on additional judges this week, including top U.S. Justice Department official Emil Bove, a former lawyer for Trump who is nominated for the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Bove's nomination has come under scrutiny after a fired department lawyer claimed in a complaint that Bove used an expletive when he said during a meeting that the Trump administration might need to ignore judicial commands. Bove has pushed back against suggestions from Democrats that the whistleblower's claims make him unfit for the federal bench. Bove has also accused FBI officials of 'insubordination' for refusing to hand over the names of agents who investigated the U.S. Capitol riot and ordered the firings of a group of prosecutors involved in the Jan. 6 criminal cases. Mary Clare Jalonick, The Associated Press
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Senate confirms Trump's first judicial nominee of his second term
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has confirmed President Donald Trump's first judicial pick of his second term, voting to approve Whitney Hermandorfer as a judge for the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The confirmation of Hermandorfer, who worked for Tennessee's attorney general, comes after the Democratic-led Senate under former President Joe Biden confirmed 235 federal judges and the Republican-led Senate in Trump's first term confirmed 234 federal judges. The two presidents each worked to reshape the judiciary, with Trump taking advantage of a high number of judicial vacancies at the end of President Barack Obama's term and Democrats working to beat Trump's number after he had the opportunity to nominate three Supreme Court justices. So far in his second term, Trump has fewer vacancies to fill. While he inherited more than 100 vacancies from Obama, who was stymied by a Republican Senate in his final two years, Trump now has 49 vacancies to fill out of almost 900 federal judgeships. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said last week that the Senate would work to quickly confirm Trump's judicial nominees, even though 'we're not facing the number of judicial vacancies this Congress we did during Trump's first term.' Hermandorfer, who was confirmed 46-42 along party lines, has defended many of Trump's policies as director of strategic litigation for Tennessee's attorney general, including his bid to end birthright citizenship. Democrats and liberal judicial advocacy groups criticized her as extreme on that issue and others, also citing her office's defense of the state's strict abortion ban. Before working for the Tennessee Attorney General, she clerked for three Supreme Court justices. But at her confirmation hearing last month, Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware criticized what he called a 'striking brevity' of court experience since Hermandorfer graduated from law school a decade ago. Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Monday that Trump is only focused on 'a nominee's perceived loyalty to him and his agenda — and a willingness to rule in favor of him and his administration.' The Judiciary panel is scheduled to vote on additional judges this week, including top Justice Department official Emil Bove, a former lawyer for Trump who is nominated for the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Bove's nomination has come under scrutiny after a fired department lawyer claimed in a complaint that Bove used an expletive when he said during a meeting that the Trump administration might need to ignore judicial commands. Bove has pushed back against suggestions from Democrats that the whistleblower's claims make him unfit for the federal bench. Bove has also accused FBI officials of 'insubordination' for refusing to hand over the names of agents who investigated the U.S. Capitol riot and ordered the firings of a group of prosecutors involved in the Jan. 6 criminal cases.
Washington Post
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Senate confirms Trump's first judicial nominee of his second term
WASHINGTON — The Senate has confirmed President Donald Trump's first judicial pick of his second term, voting to approve Whitney Hermandorfer as a judge for the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The confirmation of Hermandorfer, who worked for Tennessee's attorney general, comes after the Democratic-led Senate under former President Joe Biden confirmed 235 federal judges and the Republican-led Senate in Trump's first term confirmed 234 federal judges .
