President Donald Trump has nominated U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky of Arkansas to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a move that, if confirmed by the Senate, would give Trump appointees a majority on a federal appeals court for the first time. Rudofsky, who currently sits on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, drew national attention in 2022 for a ruling that curtailed private plaintiffs' ability to sue under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
Trump announced the nomination in a Truth Social post on Wednesday, saying, “Lee will be a rock solid defender of the Constitution on the Eighth Circuit,” according to Reuters. The St. Louis-based 8th Circuit, which hears appeals from federal courts in Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota, has 11 active judges. Trump has already appointed five of them, and Republican presidents have appointed 10 of the 11, per the same Reuters report. If Rudofsky is confirmed, Trump-appointed judges would hold a 6-5 majority on the court, making it, according to Nomination Notes, the first federal appeals court in the nation dominated by Trump appointees.
A Vacancy Two Decades in the Making
The seat Rudofsky would fill opened up after Judge Bobby Shepherd announced in July that he would take senior status once a successor is confirmed, marking roughly 20 years since his 2006 appointment by President George W. Bush, per Nomination Notes. Shepherd's son, John Thomas Shepherd, was confirmed as a federal district judge in Arkansas earlier this year, the outlet notes. As of July 2026, the court's active bench included just one judge appointed by a Democratic president — Obama appointee Judge Jane Kelly — who is also its sole active female judge, according to the same account.
Rudofsky's nomination is not happening in isolation. In May, Trump nominated U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor of North Dakota, appointed to the district bench in 2019, to fill a separate 8th Circuit vacancy created when Trump appointee Judge Ralph Erickson announced plans to take senior status, per Investing.com. Traynor's nomination has drawn its own scrutiny: Senate Judiciary Committee members questioned him during a June hearing over his May 2024 signing of a letter vowing not to hire Columbia University law clerks following campus protests over the Gaza war, according to the Columbia Daily Spectator, which reported that Traynor defended the pledge as consistent with his public role. As of July 1, the Republican-led Senate had confirmed 45 Article III judges nominated during Trump's second term, including 38 district judges and seven appeals court judges, according to Ballotpedia.
The Voting Rights Ruling That Made His Name
Rudofsky's 2022 ruling, issued in a lawsuit brought by the Arkansas NAACP, held that only the U.S. Attorney General is empowered to file lawsuits under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, effectively cutting off private plaintiffs and advocacy groups from that enforcement path, Reuters reports. A divided 8th Circuit panel upheld that ruling on January 30, 2024, in a 2-1 decision written by Trump appointee Judge David Stras, according to the Washington Post. Legal experts have described the outcome as a landmark shift in voting rights litigation, per the same reporting. The debate over private enforcement of Section 2 has since spilled into Congress; the House passed a bill last week aimed at strengthening the Voting Rights Act, though as Hoodline reported, its path through the Senate looks dead on arrival.
Rudofsky's career before the bench spans corporate law, government service and Republican politics. He earned his bachelor's degree from Cornell University in 2001 and his law degree from Harvard Law School in 2005, then clerked for U.S. Circuit Judge Andrew Kleinfeld on the 9th Circuit and Justice Robert Cordy of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, according to Talk Business & Politics. He went on to work at the law firm Kirkland & Ellis and later at Walmart, where he served as senior director of its global anti-corruption compliance team, Reuters reports. He also served as deputy general counsel and director of legal Election Day operations for Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign, and has worked on several other Republican campaigns.
Solicitor General Years Shaped His Record
Then-Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge hired Rudofsky as the state's first official solicitor general in 2015, a post he held until 2018, when he returned to Walmart. During that tenure, Rudofsky instituted a formal moot court preparation program for state attorneys and a mandatory review process for legal briefs submitted to the 8th Circuit and the Arkansas Supreme Court, per Talk Business & Politics. He also defended in court Arkansas's decision to end Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, a case that continues to draw opposition from civil rights and reproductive rights groups, according to background compiled by the Alliance for Justice.
Rudofsky was first confirmed to the district court in 2019 by a 51-41 Senate vote, a confirmation that faced pushback at the time from civil rights and reproductive rights organizations over his record as solicitor general, per Ballotpedia. He was nominated by Trump in July 2019 to replace District Judge J. Leon Holmes. Following Trump's Truth Social announcement Wednesday, Arkansas Lieutenant Governor Rutledge and Attorney General Tim Griffin issued statements praising Rudofsky's legal career and endorsing his elevation, according to Fox News.
Israel Trips and Clerk Screening Draw Notice
Rudofsky, who is Jewish, traveled to Israel in 2024 with other judges, meeting with Israeli government officials and soldiers, Reuters reports. He has also pressed prospective law clerks to confirm they had not condoned the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, antisemitism or Islamophobia, according to the same reporting. Rudofsky is a member of the Federalist Society.
Rudofsky's nomination follows the Senate's confirmation of former Trump attorney Justin Smith to the 8th Circuit, which Hoodline covered as the court handed a Trump loyalist a lifetime seat. If Rudofsky is confirmed as well, he would succeed Judge Shepherd and help cement a conservative shift on a court that already leans heavily Republican-appointed, with Judge Kelly remaining the lone Democratic appointee among the active judges.
