The Enlightenment

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Welcome to The Judiciary at Noon. Take a break from work to get an update on the oft-neglected third branch of the United States government, the judicial branch.

The series covers any updates to the federal judiciary, including any new judges confirmed, any deaths, resignations, or retirements from the courts, and any new vacancies that have occurred. It includes political analysis at the very end. This post covers the last six weeks.

Confirmations

No judges were confirmed in the six weeks spanning April 18, 2025 to May 29, 2025.

Vacancies

Federal Judiciary

• Apr. 18, 2025: Judge Steven Douglas Merryday of the Middle District of Florida announced his intention to take senior status on Aug. 31, 2025, creating a vacancy on the court.
• May 21, 2025: Judge Ricardo H. Hinojosa of the Southern District of Texas assumed senior status, opening up a vacancy on the court.
• May 23, 2025: Chief Judge Timothy Carroll Batten, Sr. of the Northern District of Georgia retired, opening up a vacancy on the court.

District of Columbia Judiciary

• May 16, 2025: Judge Heidi M. Pasichow of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia announced she would retire on June 27, 2025, creating a vacancy on the court.

61 vacancies remain on the federal judiciary, an increase from 59 six weeks ago.

Retirements, Deaths, and Resignations

• May 23, 2025: Chief Judge Timothy Carroll Batten, Sr. of the Northern District of Georgia retired.

Other

Chief Judges

• May 15, 2025: Judge Wendy Baldwin Vitter, a Trump appointee, became Chief Judge of the Eastern District of Louisiana. She is succeeding Judge Nannette Jolivette Brown, an Obama appointee, as Chief Judge.
• May 24, 2025: Judge Leigh Martin May, an Obama appointee, became Chief Judge of the Northern District of Georgia. She is succeeding Judge Timothy Batten, a Bush appointee, as Chief Judge.

Nominations

• May 1, 2025: Trump nominated Whitney Downs Hermandorfer to be a Judge of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
• May 6, 2025: Trump nominated five individuals to serve as federal judges. Four are nominated to become district judges in the Western and Eastern Districts of Missouri and one is nominated to be a judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
• May 28, 2025: Trump nominated six individuals to serve as federal judges. Five are nominated to be district judges in the Middle and Southern Districts of Florida and one is nominated to be a judge of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

Analysis

I’m back!

After a six-week hiatus, my semester has come to an end and I have some time to write you this entry. There is plenty of news; let’s dig in.

Truth be told, I don’t follow the lawsuits surrounding Donald Trump very closely. There are so many challenges to the second Trump regime’s policies, firings, executive orders, and actions that I can’t possibly name them all. However, a few important cases come to the top of my head that are worthy of mention.

• April 30, 2025: Mohsen Mahdawi, a Columbia University student and legal permanent resident arrested by immigration thugs, was released by an order of the District of Vermont.
• May 6, 2025: The Supreme Court allowed the Trump regime to ban transgender soldiers from serving in the military.
• May 9, 2025: Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University student kidnapped by masked immigration thugs, was released by an order of the District of Vermont.
• May 14, 2025: Badar Khan Suri, a professor and postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University who was arrested by immigration thugs, was released by an order of the Eastern District of Virginia.
• May 15, 2025: The Supreme Court heard arguments regarding Trump’s obviously unconstitutional orders to end birthright citizenship. The Court may stop Trump’s order, but is also considering ending the ability of district and appellate courts from issuing nationwide injunctions against laws. A decision is pending as of the writing of this article.
• May 28, 2025: A three-judge panel of the United States Court of International Trade unanimously halted most of Trump’s tariffs, stating that the dictator cannot invoke emergency powers to set tariffs.

Trump has been handed a raft of defeats by the courts, but I want you to pay attention to the May 15 case heard by the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court could very well bar lower courts from issuing nationwide injunctions, meaning that lower court judges will be unable to halt the implementation of laws deemed unconstitutional nationwide.

Instead, plaintiffs in every single judicial district of the United States will have to sue one-by-one to prevent the implementation of said law in each of the country’s 94 judicial districts, as judges will only be able to halt a law within the bounds of their judicial district.

Such a ruling will greatly empower Trump as he continues to violate the Constitution and laws passed by Congress.

Moving on to these judicial nominations. I haven’t had a great track record of making sound political predictions, but this time I was right. In my last entry, I predicted a round of judicial nominations on May 8. That round came two days earlier, on May 6.

Trump appears to be nominating judges to red states with large numbers of vacancies. He has nominated judges to serve in Missouri and Florida. Both are deep-red states; Missouri has four vacancies, while Florida has five. With these nominations, Trump has nominated a judge to every vacancy in the two states.

I was also right about Missouri. Last year I predicted it would be a top contender to shift to the right, and I’m proven correct. If this trend continues, I imagine that nominations in Texas are certain to be in the next batch, where there are a staggering eight vacancies. Louisiana will likely follow, as the state has four vacancies.

One of the circuit court nominees is the lovely Emil Bove, the 44-year-old Principal Deputy Attorney General of the United States. He gained infamy earlier this year after blackmailing Eric Adams, Mayor of New York City, by dropping the federal corruption lawsuit against Adams on the condition that Adams enforces Trump’s mass deportation scheme within New York City.

The other circuit court nominee, Whitney Downs Hermandorfer, is a 38-year-old attorney in the Tennessee Attorney General’s office. She is being nominated to replace Judge Jane Branstetter Stranch, who will take senior status upon the confirmation of a successor.

Too bad Judge Stranch could not muster the courage to rescind her vacancy. Too bad Biden couldn’t confirm a successor, even though he had about a year to do so.

Now, it might seem like Trump is moving at a lightning pace to continue his reshaping of the judiciary. The nomination of Judge Steven Merryday’s successor in Florida just forty days after the announcement of his intent to take senior status is incredibly fast.

However, Trump is actually behind where Biden was at this point in his presidency. Trump has made 12 nominations; Biden at this point in time into his presidency made 18 nominations.

Finally, let’s take a look at the age demographics of the judges nominated. It seems Trump is leaning heavily into nominating young judges. Bove is 44, Hermandorfer is 38, as two examples. Josh Divine, the Solicitor General of Missouri jointly nominated to the Eastern and Western Districts of Missouri, is about 35 years old.

Trump is making it a priority to nominate judges who will interpret United States law long after he has left politics.

SIGN-OFF

That’s it for this week’s The Judiciary at Noon. This has been Anthony Myrlados.