WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — President Donald Trump has announced his first slate of judicial nominees in his second term, leaving conservatives hopeful that the picks will make constitutionalist rulings that push law and policy in a more conservative direction.
The Daily Wire reports that Trump has announced Whitney Hermandorfer, a former law clerk for Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, and Brett Kavanaugh for the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals; Missouri Solicitor General Joshua Divine to the District Court for the Eastern & Western Districts of Missouri; federal prosecutor Zachary Bluestone to the Eastern District of Missouri; Missouri principal deputy solicitor general Maria Lanahan to the Eastern District of Missouri; fellow Missouri AG office alum Cristian Stevens to the state’s Eastern District as well; and Edward Aloysius O’Connell, former U.S. attorney and current attorney for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission & Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey took credit for most of the picks coming from his office, touting that “Missouri is leading the way in restoring legal excellence to the federal bench.”
“Our Court System is not letting me do the job I was Elected to do,” Trump declared. “Activist judges must let the Trump Administration deport murderers, and other criminals who have come into our Country illegally, WITHOUT DELAY!!!”
Trump hailed all the jurists’ legal talent, while highlighting Hermandorfer as a “staunch defender of girl’s and women’s sports” and O’Connell as perfectly suited to “help fix Violent Crime in the City by restoring the RULE OF LAW” to the nation’s capital.
Conservatives are cautiously optimistic about the selections, who now must go before the Republican-controlled Senate for confirmation, given the historically mixed record of judicial nominees from modern Republican presidents.
The current Supreme Court is often unpredictable on conservative and pro-family goals, despite six of its nine current members having been appointed by the GOP, and three by Trump himself.
The Court has delivered conservatives major victories on gun rights, environmental regulation, affirmative action, and, most significantly, abortion with the overturn of Roe v. Wade, but it has also issued dismissive rulings on COVID-19 shot mandates, religious freedom, and LGBT ideology to the point that conservative Justice Samuel Alito has taken the rare step of criticizing Barrett and Kavanaugh for lacking the “fortitude” to resolve such issues.
