President Trump’s first judicial pick, Whitney Hermandorfer for the Sixth Circuit out of Tennessee, is a great choice. If this is a sign of what is to come, it should put to rest the hand-wringing on the right about how Trump’s supposed falling out with the Federalist Society means that he will be picking cronies and cranks.
In many ways, Hermandorfer is consistent with my suggestion earlier in the year that Trump continue to seek high quality nominees who are prepared for the legal fights of the future, and not those of the past.
In terms of credentials, Hermandorfer resembles the judges from Trump’s first term. Still under 40, she clerked for the who’s who of the federal judiciary, including Richard Leon of the D.C. District Court, Brett Kavanaugh then of the D.C. Circuit, and Justices Sam Alito and Amy Barrett. While she went to Princeton for college, in law school, she excelled at George Washington University, outside the Ivy League cocoon. I remember when I was a summer associate at Kirkland & Ellis, one of the recruiting partners told a few of us that he hated hiring from Yale because they were — essentially — entitled know-it-alls. Who was he looking for? “Top of the class at George Washington. Because that guy’s gonna work and he’s gonna know the law.” Hermandorfer also cut her teeth at the elite D.C. firm of Williams & Connolly.
This kind of early-career combination of academic excellence and competitive employment is a sound prerequisite for judges. It typically yields the kind of judges who will have the intellectual firepower and work ethic to lap their liberal public-defender peers on the bench. And, again, it’s generally in keeping with the approach from Trump 1.
The important difference here is that Hermandorfer has made a name for herself in recent years by being the tip of the spear for the excellent Tennessee Attorney General’s office in consequential litigation involving contentious social issues. If the rights of girls against the trans onslaught get the Supreme Court’s imprimatur this summer, it will be in no small part because of Hermandorfer’s efforts.
This a great pick and hopefully just the first of many comparable choices to come.