TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Azya Thornton on May 2, 2025

President Donald Trump has nominated Whitney Hermandorfer, director of the Strategic Litigation Unit in the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office, to serve as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. The vacancy was created when Judge Jane Branstetter Stranch announced she would take senior status following confirmation of a successor. It is Trump’s first judicial nomination since returning to the Oval Office and is expected to be one of more than 100 federal court appointments he could make over the next four years, according to Reuters. Trump praised Hermandorfer’s background, noting that she has clerked for three current members of the U.S. Supreme Court: Justices Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti called Hermandorfer “an outstanding nominee,” adding in a statement, “Whitney Hermandorfer's unwavering commitment to the rule of law, her exacting analytical rigor and her unshakeable optimism will serve our country well.”