NEW: Senate Confirms Key Trump Pick

One of President Donald Trump’s first judicial appointments passed in flying colors on Tuesday as the U.S. Senate voted to fill the seat of a retiring Obama judge.

Whitney Hermandorfer received a lifetime appointment to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Ohio, replacing one of two appointments made by former President Barack Obama.

In a statement, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) cited Hermandorfer’s temperament and credited his colleagues with keeping the focus on Trump’s judicial nominees following passage of the Big, Beautiful Bill earlier this month.

“Our job now is to continue the good work that we began during the first Trump administration by filling those vacancies with more judges who understand the proper role of a judge,” he said from the floor of the Senate on Tuesday. “And that starts with confirming Ms. Hermandorfer.”

Hermandorfer, 38, is distinguished as being the first federal appeals nominee of President Trump’s second term. She previously clerked for U.S. Supreme Court justices Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett, as well as Brett Kavanaugh during his time as a member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

There are roughly 50 judicial vacancies at the federal level today, the IJR reports, representing less than half the number that were filled during Trump’s first term.

With a slim majority, Thune said he plans to work with Trump and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to expedite the confirmation hearings for Trump’s nominees. Grassley’s committee has so far advanced five of Trump’s nominees.

As a member of Republican Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti’s office, Hermandorfer helped achieve a historic Supreme Court victory last month with a ruling upholding the state’s decision to bar transgender athletes from participating in sports teams outside their biological sex.

In a 6-3 decision, the high court signaled that all states may now pursue bans on transgender-related care for minors, a deeply unpopular policy, but one that galvanized far-left progressive activists in the 2024 election. Another 26 states have already enacted laws similar to the one challenged in Tennessee.

Trump praised Hermandorfer as a “staunch defender of Girls’ and Women’s Sports” when he first submitted her name to the Senate for consideration.

Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) did not budget on a Senate rule that would have fast-tracked the confirmation process and instead claimed Hermandorfer is “unqualified to serve on the bench.”

“She has made a career out of going after people’s reproductive rights, their transgender rights and anti-discrimination policies,” Schumer claimed during a floor speech.

The number of floor votes in the 119th Congress has reached a record high, according to the Senate Republican Communications Center. The confirmation of Hermandorfer was the body’s 384th roll call vote since convening in January, outpacing every Congress for the past 35 years.