President Donald Trump nominated the first federal judge of his second administration.
Whitney Hermandorfer is Trump’s choice to serve on the 6th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio. She currently leads Tennessee’s Strategic Litigation Unit in the Office of the Tennessee Attorney General.
Trump praised her as as a staunch defender of girls and women’s sports.
“Whitney has been serving the Great People of Tennessee, in the Attorney General’s Office, where she has strongly litigated in Court to protect Citizens from Federal Government Overreach,” Trump said on TruthSocial. “A former Co-Captain of the Princeton University Women’s Basketball Team, Whitney is a staunch defender of Girls’ and Women’s Sports.”
Many conservatives consider Trump’s 234 judicial appointments during his first term, including three members of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority, to be one of his greatest accomplishments as the 45th president.
In her role in the Tennessee attorney general’s office, Hermandorfer focuses on leading constitutional, statutory, and administrative-law challenges to federal agency action, as well as on defending the state in complex matters at the trial and appellate level.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti praised the nomination, saying “The State of Tennessee has trusted Whitney Hermandorfer over and over with complex cases of national significance. She has never let us down.”
The 37-year-old attorney clerked for Justice Samuel Alito in the 2018 Supreme Court term and for Justice Amy Coney Barrett during her first term in 2020.
She clerked for then-Judge Kavanaugh on the D.C. Circuit, and Judge Richard Leon on the U.S. District Court for D.C.
“She has a long history of working for Judges and Justices who respect the RULE OF LAW, and protect our Constitution, including Justice Samuel Alito and two fine Supreme Court Justices I appointed in my First Term,” Trump said. “Whitney is a Fighter who will inspire confidence in our Legal System. Thank you Whitney!”
Hermandorfer is a graduate of Princeton University and George Washington University Law School.
About 100 days into Trump’s first term, the Senate had already confirmed a new Supreme Court justice, Trump had nominated an appeals court judge, and several other prominent judicial nominees were in the queue to be announced within days.
Trump is off to a slower start in nominating judges than his first term, but the senator overseeing nominations has said he is not concerned.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he “was not worried from the standpoint that there’s less vacancies than there were eight years ago.”
