Ten years ago, Whitney Hermandorfer celebrated her graduation from The George Washington University Law School, where she finished first in her class and edited law review articles debating federal precedent. This year, she successfully defended Tennessee’s ban on transgender health care for minors in front of the Supreme Court of the United States. Soon she will help write federal precedent as one of the youngest judges across the nation’s 12 federal courts of appeals.
Hermandorfer has sailed through every step of her Senate confirmation process as the first appeals court judge nominated by President Donald Trump in his second term. Raised in Franklin and educated at the Harpeth Hall School and Princeton University, Hermandorfer returned to Nashville in recent years to argue controversial state positions for Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti’s Special Litigation Unit. She has clerked for Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh, all of whom ruled in her favor just weeks ago, upholding Tennessee’s law banning gender-affirming care for minors in United States v. Skrmetti.
Whitney Hermandorfer
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved Hermandorfer’s nomination to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals — the Cincinnati-based body that sits just below the Supreme Court and hears federal cases from Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan — along party lines in a brief meeting on June 26. Hermandorfer defended her short but prestigious résumé to senators in a June 5 hearing during which she was introduced by Tennessee’s Republican U.S. Sens. Bill Hagerty and Marsha Blackburn.
“There is no one more qualified to take on that important role of an appellate judge,” Blackburn told colleagues on June 26. “She will be a tireless advocate for our constitution. She will apply the law as it is written and not rewrite it.”
Democrats criticized Hermandorfer’s lack of federal trial experience and her history arguing to restrict personal freedoms, which includes defending Tennessee’s strict abortion ban as well as U.S. v Skrmetti. They also used her hearing to expose the tightly connected world of conservative activism, tying Hermandorfer to both the Federalist Society and the Teneo Network, social and professional groups organized around judicial challenges to advance aspects of conservatism via setting or overturning constitutional precedents.
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The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, an advocacy coalition for more than 240 groups, sent senators a letter opposing Hermandorfer’s nomination.
“At a time when so many of our fundamental civil rights are under attack, we need to trust that our judges will impartially and fairly rule on cases without bias or animus,” reads the letter. “Unfortunately, a careful review of Ms. Hermandorfer’s record shows a demonstrated hostility towards our civil and human rights that is disqualifying for a judicial nominee. We strongly urge the Senate to oppose her nomination to the Sixth Circuit.”
Official confirmation to the bench will likely come later in July following a full Senate vote. Republicans have a three-person chamber majority. A few conservatives — like Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — have demonstrated a willingness to buck the president’s agenda, though court confirmation expert Carl Tobias expects Hermandorfer will easily win the votes necessary for approval. Her nomination looks even more palatable to less extreme Republicans as it comes alongside several other hyper-partisan nominees for federal judgeships.
“She looks like the typical Trump 1.0 nominee in the sense that she’s been active in the Federalist Society, she’s well-credentialed, she’s clerked for excellent judges that are well-respected, and she subscribes to conservative ideological tenets like originalism,” says Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond. “It’s not clear that she’s what people call a ‘MAGA’ judge, who is more loyal to Trump than the Constitution. She has accolades, and she’s well-spoken — she showed that in her hearing. She’s a rising star among conservatives, and at some point she will be a chief judge of the 6th Circuit.”
Hermandorfer’s age and deep connections in the conservative legal world set her up as a potential future Supreme Court justice, Tobias estimates. At least, Hermandorfer can expect a decades-long career determining critical cases for Tennesseans, Kentuckians, Ohioans and Michiganders, pending confirmation.
