Trump ramps up judicial nominations with four picks in Missouri

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By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he was nominating four Missouri lawyers with experience as prosecutors or working under the state’s Republican attorney general to serve as federal trial court judges in the state.

The new nominees brought the total number of judicial nominations made by Trump in his second term to five, after the Republican president on Thursday announced his first pick to serve as life-tenured federal judge.

Trump is expected to have the chance to make more than 100 judicial nominations over the next four years, adding to the conservative stamp he made on the judiciary with 234 appointments during his first term.

The latest nominees included two members of Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s legal team, Joshua Divine, the state’s solicitor general, and Maria Lanahan, who serves as principal deputy solicitor general.

Bailey in a statement called Divine the architect of the state’s successful challenge to a plan by former Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration to forgive student loans and said he spearheaded the defense of the state’s restrictions on treatments for minors diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

“Whether it was dismantling the Biden administration’s unlawful student loan bailout or shutting down radical attempts to harm Missouri children, Josh brought precision, grit, and leadership every step of the way,” Bailey said.

Trump in a social media post said that as a former clerk to conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Divine “knows what is required to protect the Rule of Law and Constitutional Rights for the Great People of Missouri.”

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Divine and his fellow nominees would serve as judges on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.

The other nominees include two current and former federal prosecutors, Zachary Bluestone, who serves in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in St. Louis, and Judge Cristian Stevens, who serves on the Missouri Court of Appeals.

(Reporting by Jasper Ward; Editing by Ryan Patrick Jones and Stephen Coates)