Trump Withdraws Rudofsky Nomination for Appeals Court and Picks Hiland Instead

The White House on Tuesday withdrew the nomination of U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit and nominated Arkansas Supreme Court Justice J. Cody Hiland in his place, Reuters and Bloomberg Law reported. The swap ended a standoff with Arkansas Senators John Boozman and Tom Cotton, both Republicans, who had blocked Rudofsky because they wanted Hiland to get the seat.

Rudofsky conceded the point in his own statement. "The reality is that, without the support of my home-state senators, confirmation is simply not a practical possibility in today's Senate," he said, according to Reuters. He added that he would be "forever grateful to President Trump for the honor of his nomination."

A fight inside the party

Boozman defended the senators' role in the process. In a statement reported by Reuters, he said he believed the Senate's part in judicial confirmations was "worth protecting, including the need for home-state senators' feedback to meaningfully shape the selection of nominees."

The dispute had already turned public. Mike Davis, a Trump ally who leads the conservative legal group Article III Project, accused Boozman and Cotton in a social media post on Friday of committing an "unforgivable sin" by blocking Rudofsky and putting the seat at risk, Reuters reported. Neither Arkansas senator introduced Rudofsky at his September confirmation hearing, a break from the usual practice for home-state senators, Bloomberg Law reported.

The clock runs to January

Democrats won at least 54 Senate seats in the November 3 midterm elections and take control of the chamber in January. The White House and Senate Republicans are racing to confirm as many judges as they can during the lame-duck session, Reuters reported. Trump pressed the point on Monday, urging the Senate in a social media post to confirm his pending nominees, including 25 federal judges, the Washington Examiner reported.

The 8th Circuit is based in St. Louis and hears appeals from federal courts in Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. It has 11 active judges. One more Trump appointee would mean 10 of the 11 were appointed by Republican presidents, and six of the 11 by Trump himself, Reuters reported.

The two judges

Trump appointed Rudofsky, a former Arkansas solicitor general, as a federal district judge in Little Rock in 2019, and prominent conservative lawyers backed his move in August to elevate Rudofsky to the appeals court seat held by Judge Bobby Shepherd, Reuters and Bloomberg Law reported.

Hiland has served on the Arkansas Supreme Court since 2023, when Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders appointed him after the death of Justice Robin Wynne, according to the governor's office. Before that he served as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas from 2017 to 2020, a post he received from Trump.

At a law school event in Arkansas in August, Hiland told the audience he had expected to receive the appeals court nomination and was offered a federal district judgeship instead. "And so, being belligerent at times, I said no," he said, in remarks captured on video and reported by Reuters. "That is not a position that I'm interested in."

Hiland did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters. His nomination now goes to the Senate, where Republicans hold the majority until the new Congress convenes in January.