patrick mcneil (he/him)

NEW: Trump's conservative pick to permanently lead the DOJ's environmental division, Adam Gustafson, is already reshaping it. Beyond his alarming record at DOJ on environmental issues, his background includes anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ work. nominationnotes.substack.com/p/trumps-con...

Scoop: Trump has nominated Grayson Lambert, chief legal counsel to Gov. Henry McMaster, to serve on the District of South Carolina, a source familiar confirmed to me. Trump had not previously announced the nomination on Truth Social or elsewhere. nominationnotes.substack.com/p/trump-nomi...

Lambert is a 2012 law school graduate who started in McMaster's office in 2021. He was counsel of record on briefs in Dobbs and Skrmetti on behalf of McMaster and other Republican governors. He's worked to restrict voting rights and defended McMaster's deployment of National Guard troops to DC.

21 judicial nominees are pending. 8 still need a hearing. 6 are eligible for an 11/10 hearing. 2 others likely on 11/18. More nominees could appear at the 11/18 hearing if their paperwork is received TODAY. We'll see if Trump names anyone today for vacancies in Arkansas, NC, SC, and Texas.

A White House official confirmed to me this evening that Sen. Blackburn has returned her blue slip on Samuel Adkisson’s nomination to the Eastern District of TN. She was previously blocking the White House lawyer’s nomination. And still hasn't said why. nominationnotes.substack.com/p/adkisson-n...

UPDATE and further confirmation from a Blackburn spokesperson: “Senator Blackburn has returned a favorable blue slip for Mr. Adkisson. She looks forward to supporting his nomination and ensuring that he is confirmed before the end of the year.”

NEW: A White House official confirmed to me that Senator Marsha Blackburn has returned her blue slip on Samuel Adkisson’s nomination to the Eastern District of Tennessee. She was previously blocking the White House lawyer’s nomination. It now appears that he’ll get a hearing on November 10 or 18.

There's not much time to confirm more Trump judges this year. But we know Judiciary Republicans will break norms to get as many through as possible. I'm watching today and tomorrow to see if Trump announces more nominees. Several more red-state district court vacancies are open without a nominee.

NEW: Trump named two lifetime judicial picks today. Nebraska nominee Eric Hamilton, a DOJ lawyer, has defended Trump's appalling agenda in court. Indiana nominee Joseph Falvey, a federal prosecutor, is a 2017 law school graduate with a bad record, too. nominationnotes.substack.com/p/trump-anno...

An important note: Trump’s last 18 lifetime judicial nominees have ALL been men — and nearly all are white. He has not nominated a woman to serve as a lifetime judge since he announced Anna St. John's nomination in June. Twenty of the 21 pending lifetime nominees right now are men.

Trump just announced two new judicial nominees: Eric Hamilton for the District of Nebraska and Joseph Falvey for the Northern District of Indiana. Hamilton is a DOJ lawyer, Trump 1.0 White House lawyer, and was Nebraska solicitor general. Falvey is a prosecutor who graduated law school in 2017.

Two of Trump's nominees played significant roles in cases seeking to limit who can enforce Section 2 of the VRA. One is a Trump judge who's now up for elevation to the 8th Circuit. One is a state solicitor general now up for a district court judgeship. nominationnotes.substack.com/p/how-trumps...

Trump 1.0 judge Lee Rudofsky, now a nominee to the 8th Circuit, ruled that private citizens can't sue directly under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Then Phil Axt, ND solicitor general and now a district court nominee, argued that citizens can't use Section 1983 to enforce Section 2 either.

Interesting: Trump judicial nominee Philip Aubart, who played a significant role in the Justice Department’s investigation of former FBI Director James Comey, has never been admitted to practice in the Middle District of North Carolina — where he's been nominated to serve as a lifetime judge.

NEW: Judiciary Republicans are planning to break committee norms, over the objections of committee Democrats, to push through more Trump judges after the midterm elections. A spokesperson for Durbin confirmed to me that Dems did not agree to this. nominationnotes.substack.com/p/judiciary-...

“The Chairman’s plan to hold two back-to-back nomination hearings one week apart without minority consent in November departs from longstanding committee practice and establishes a new precedent that will allow Democrats to process nominees more quickly in a future Democratic administration."