(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump picked an attorney in the Tennessee attorney general’s office for a spot on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Whitney Hermandorfer is currently the director of the Strategic Litigation Unit in the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office. If confirmed by the Senate, she will fill a judicial vacancy left by Judge Jane Branstetter Stranch, who announced in January she was taking senior status. The court is based in Cincinnati and hears cases from Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky and Michigan.
“The atate of Tennessee has trusted Whitney Hermandorfer over and over with complex cases of national significance. She has never let us down,” said Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti on Friday. “Her leadership of Tennessee’s Strategic Litigation Unit sets a high bar of excellence at every level of the federal judiciary, all the way up to the Supreme Court of the United States.”
Kentucky Attorney General Russel Coleman said Hermandorfer has been an advocate.
“As neighbors to the north, our office has been grateful for Whitney’s partnership as we uphold our laws and the Constitution. Whitney was one of the brilliant advocates behind our lawsuit to protect women’s sports, and her ability to see around legal corners led to key victories all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court,” Coleman said in a statement.
Tennessee’s U.S. senators praised Trump’s nomination.
“She is a rising star in Tennessee, and she will be a fair-minded jurist who will apply our nation’s laws as they are written and defend the Constitution,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said.
“Few can boast equal credentials, having clerked for Justices Alito and Barrett, as well as then-Judge Kavanaugh. Whitney graduated top of her law school class at the George Washington University Law School,” said Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn.
