President Donald Trump announced late Thursday night that he would nominate Whitney Hermandorfer to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. It is his first federal judicial nomination since returning to the White House in January.

Hermandorfer, a former co-captain of Princeton University’s women’s varsity basketball team, currently serves as director of the Strategic Litigation Unit in the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office.

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In that role, she has led major cases involving constitutional law, administrative law, and challenges to federal agency actions. She previously worked in private practice at Williams & Connolly LLP in Washington, D.C., focusing on appellate and administrative litigation.

“Whitney has been serving the Great People of Tennessee, in the Attorney General’s Office, where she has strongly litigated in Court to protect Citizens from Federal Government Overreach,” Trump wrote on Truth Social,” praising her accolades and prior clerkships with prominent originalist justices.

Trump noted Hermandorfer previously clerked for Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett, as well as then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh on the D.C. Circuit and U.S. District Judge Richard Leon.

“She has a long history of working for Judges and Justices who respect the RULE OF LAW, and protect our Constitution,” said the president.

Trump made judicial nominations a defining feature of his first term, successfully confirming more than 234 federal judges — including Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett — with the crucial backing of then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. This effort reshaped the federal judiciary and secured a 6-3 Republican-appointed majority on the Supreme Court.

President Joe Biden barely edged out his predecessor by confirming 235 federal judges during his first term, including Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who achieved a goal of his term that focused on “diversity” by making her the first black woman on the high court.

Hermandorfer’s nomination follows Trump’s pattern of elevating legal figures aligned with his administration’s priorities. Notably, Trump’s first lower court nominee of his first term was Amul Thapar, whom he also nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit.

While Trump is now moving to fill judicial vacancies in his second term, the landscape has shifted. There are fewer open seats compared to the backlog he faced after the Obama administration, when Republican senators held up many confirmations.

Still, Hermandorfer’s nomination signals that judicial appointments remain a key focus for the Trump White House, and that her background meets the needed specifications that will likely align with Trump’s MAGA base. It also comes as Trump has railed against lower court judges that have stymied his second term agenda.

In her role with the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office, Hermandorfer has been involved in high-profile litigation on matters close to Trump’s reelection promises to protect families from “woke” policies and transgender encroachment on women’s sports.

Notably, Hermandorfer argued against the Biden administration’s Title IX rewrite that expanded gender identity recognition in education and threatened federal funds for barring students from participating in opposing-sex teams.

“Title IX does not require that girls shower and undress with boys, compete against boys with physical advantages, and room with boys on overnight school trips,” Hermandorfer said during oral arguments last year in a Tennessee lawsuit against Biden’s Title IX regulations.

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If confirmed by a simple Senate majority, Hermandorfer would join a circuit that has steadily shifted toward a conservative majority, shaped by Trump’s six appointments during his first term and two from former President George W. Bush. The court also includes four Biden appointees and one from former President Barack Obama.

The appeals court covers Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee, and handles major appeals on constitutional, civil, and administrative matters.