President Donald Trump announced his nominees for several federal judgeships in a press release on Tuesday night.
Trump named his first judicial nominee, Whitney Hermandorfer, last week. Hermandorfer would serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit if confirmed. She is currently the director of the strategic litigation unit in the office of the Tennessee Attorney General.
Trump named five others on Tuesday night to serve in various judgeships. Four of them are for judicial appointments in Missouri, and one is for Washington, D.C.
For the judicial position in the nation’s capital, Trump nominated Edward Aloysius O’Connell for Associate Judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Currently, O’Connell is the chief of staff and deputy general counsel of the Office of the Inspector General of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, according to the release.
For the judicial positions in Missouri, Trump nominated Cristian M. Stevens, Maria A. Lanahan, Zachary M. Bluestone, and Joshua M. Divine.
Stevens is currently a judge on the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, in St. Louis, Missouri. He was previously an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri and a partner at a law firm in St. Louis, Missouri, according to the release. He was also the first assistant attorney general and deputy attorney general of the criminal division in the Missouri attorney general’s office. The president nominated him for a judicial position on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.
Lanahan is currently the principal deputy solicitor general in the Missouri attorney general’s office. She previously was the senior manager and litigation counsel for a communications company and an associate at a law firm. Both positions were in St. Louis, Missouri, noted the release. She earned her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. She was nominated by the president for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.
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Bluestone currently serves as a violent crimes prosecutor in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri and an appellate chief. He was also the deputy solicitor general in the Missouri Attorney General’s Office. He earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School, according to the release. Trump also nominated him for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.
Divine is currently the solicitor general of the state of Missouri and director of special litigation in the Missouri attorney general’s office, the release noted. He previously served as deputy solicitor general within Missouri’s attorney general’s office and as the chief counsel for Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO). He received his J.D. from Yale Law School. Trump nominated him for a judge position in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri and the Western District of Missouri.