A fight inside the Republican Party could cost President Donald Trump one of his last chances to fill a federal appeals court seat before Democrats take control of the Senate in January.
Sens. John Boozman and Tom Cotton, both Arkansas Republicans, oppose Trump’s nomination of Judge Lee Rudofsky to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, according to judicial nominations insiders cited by Bloomberg Law. Neither senator’s office responded to requests for comment.
According to those insiders, the two senators’ objection is not about Rudofsky’s qualifications. They reportedly prefer a different candidate: Cody Hiland, a sitting justice on the Arkansas Supreme Court.
Hiland said in an August video that he had expected to get the appeals court seat. Instead, he was offered a trial court judgeship, which he turned down.
Rudofsky’s credentials are solid by conservative standards. Trump appointed him to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas in 2019, and he previously served as Arkansas solicitor general. If confirmed, he would replace Judge Bobby Shepherd, a George W. Bush appointee who has served on the Eighth Circuit since 2006. Shepherd announced in July that he would take senior status once his successor is confirmed.
Signs of trouble emerged at Rudofsky’s Senate hearing in September. Neither Boozman nor Cotton introduced him to the committee, a break from the usual practice of home-state senators presenting a nominee from their state.
Rudofsky is one of four Trump appeals court nominees still pending. He, Daniel Domenico of the Tenth Circuit and Anna St. John of the Fifth Circuit are ready for floor votes. A fourth nominee, Todd Butler of the Fifth Circuit, was scheduled for a hearing this week.
Rudofsky’s nomination could stall at the Senate Judiciary Committee. Two Republicans on the panel, Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, could block his advancement at a committee vote next week. Both leave the Senate in January.
Conservative legal figures are furious about the opposition. Robert Luther III, a former official in the White House Counsel’s Office, said wanting a different person “isn’t a valid reason to object” to a circuit nominee.
Mike Davis, an informal Trump adviser, went further, calling the opposition “an unforgivable sin for Boozman and Cotton.” He also suggested that Cornyn and Tillis were “doing their bidding.” Neither Cornyn’s nor Tillis’s office responded.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who is expected to become the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee in January, warned that time is running out. If the Senate doesn’t act now, Lee said, it is “unlikely President Trump will be able to fill these positions.”
The White House did not directly address the Arkansas senators’ opposition. It said it expects all pending judicial nominees to be confirmed this year and insisted that Senate Republicans “cannot leave any circuit court vacancies for the incoming Democrat majority.”
The stakes are high. Democrats are widely expected to block further Trump appeals court nominees once they take over the chamber. That makes the coming weeks a final opening for the president to add to his imprint on the federal bench.
Trump has already filled two other Eighth Circuit seats this year. Justin Smith was confirmed in June to the seat previously held by Judge Duane Benton, and Daniel Traynor was confirmed in July to the seat vacated by Judge Ralph Erickson.
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