Trump Taps Judges Appointed In His First Term For Appellate Court Nominations
Adedokun Waliyu
3 min read
U.S. President Donald Trump is moving to elevate two conservative trial court judges he appointed during his first term to two of the nation’s regional federal appeals courts as part of a slate of six new judicial nominees.
Trump in a series of social media posts on Monday said he is nominating U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor in North Dakota to a seat on the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and Chief U.S. District Judge Daniel Domenico in Colorado to serve on the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
If confirmed by the Republican-led Senate, Traynor and Domenico will fill the only two remaining judicial vacancies available to Trump on the 13 appeals courts. He has nominated nine other appeals court judges in his second term.
Traynor would succeed U.S. Circuit Judge Ralph Erickson, a Trump appointee who in April announced plans to take senior status, and join an appeals court that is considered one of the most conservative in the country.
The 8th Circuit hears appeals from federal courts in Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. All but one of its 11 judges were appointed by Republican presidents.
In announcing Traynor’s nomination in a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said the Bismarck-based judge “has issued courageous decisions, and blocked illegal Federal Government actions under the previous Administration.”
Traynor, who joined the district court in 2019, last year threw out a Biden administration rule governing the U.S. environmental review process for infrastructure projects, saying the White House Council on Environmental Quality lacks authority to issue regulations.
A year earlier, he blocked the Biden administration from requiring 19 Republican-led states to provide health insurance coverage to immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
Traynor was also among 13 Trump-appointed judges who in 2024 signed a joint letter announcing they were boycotting hiring students from Columbia University as clerks in response to its handling of pro-Palestinian demonstrations that had riled its campus following the onset of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Domenico, who was also appointed to a district court judgeship in 2019, would succeed U.S. Circuit Judge Timothy Tymkovich, who in February announced plans to leave active service and for whom Domenico worked as a law clerk.
The 10th Circuit hears appeals arising out of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming. Democratic appointees have a 7-5 majority on the court.
“As a Judge on the Federal District Court in Colorado, Dan has displayed an exemplary record of protecting Citizens’ Constitutional Rights,” Trump wrote.
Domenico’s past rulings included decisions in 2023 blocking Colorado from barring a Christian private school from its taxpayer-funded universal preschool program and from enforcing a law banning so-called medication abortion reversal treatment offered by a Catholic medical center.
Trump’s four other judicial nominees on Monday were for district court judgeships. They include two in Texas: Kasdin Mitchell, a Kirkland & Ellis litigator nominated to serve in the Northern District of Texas, and Angela Colmenero, the deputy chief of staff to Governor Greg Abbott who is up for a seat in the Southern District of Texas.
Trump is also nominating Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath partner Antonio Pozos to serve as judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Martin to be a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
