Trump Nominates Two Justice Department Lawyers to Federal Judgeships in Nebraska and Indiana

President Donald Trump said on Monday that he will nominate two Justice Department lawyers to lifetime seats on the federal bench, one in Nebraska and one in Indiana, as Senate Republicans prepare a fast run of confirmation votes after the November 3 midterm elections.

Eric Hamilton, a senior Justice Department lawyer who has defended some of the administration's biggest policies in court, is Trump's pick for the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska. Joseph Falvey, a federal prosecutor in Indiana who once clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts, is his pick for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana. Both seats carry lifetime appointments.

The two nominees

Hamilton serves as deputy assistant attorney general for the Federal Programs Branch of the Justice Department's Civil Division, the office that defends federal agencies and presidential policies in court. Trump said Hamilton had done a "phenomenal job" in the post, "defending our Administration's most important Policies in Court." Those cases have included Trump's global tariffs, his effort to curtail birthright citizenship, the deployment of National Guard troops to cities including Los Angeles, and the move to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. Before joining the department, Hamilton was solicitor general of Nebraska, the state's top courtroom lawyer. He graduated from Stanford Law School and clerked for Judge Thomas Hardiman of the Third Circuit.

Falvey works as a federal prosecutor in the Northern District of Indiana, where he leads the appellate division of the U.S. Attorney's office. He clerked for three judges in Washington: Chief Justice Roberts at the Supreme Court, Judge Thomas Griffith of the D.C. Circuit, and Judge Dabney Friedrich of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He is a graduate of Yale Law School and the University of Notre Dame, a Marine Corps veteran and a Pat Tillman Scholar.

Indiana Sen. Todd Young welcomed the Falvey pick. "Joe has dedicated much of his career to serving our country, from his service in the Marine Corps to his work in our federal judicial system," Young said. "His extensive legal experience and commitment to public service will serve Hoosiers well on the federal bench."

The Senate plan

The nominations land with 18 of Trump's earlier judicial nominees already waiting in the Senate, according to Bloomberg Law. The Republican led Senate Judiciary Committee has set nomination hearings for November 10 and November 18, and Hamilton and Falvey are expected to be taken up at the second one. Senate Republicans have laid the groundwork for a burst of confirmation proceedings in the weeks after the midterms.

The timing matters because the November 3 elections will decide whether Republicans keep control of the Senate. Democrats hope to take the chamber, which would give them the power to slow or block Trump's remaining picks. Confirming as many nominees as possible before the current Congress ends is the Republican answer to that risk, and district court seats in states such as Nebraska and Indiana are the kind of lifetime appointments that outlast any single presidency.