WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate voted 48-43 on Monday to appoint University of Missouri alumnus Justin Smith to a seat on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Smith, 41, is from New Bloomfield and is a 2010 graduate of Mizzou School of Law. He will now enjoy a lifetime appointment as a judge on the 8th Circuit, which has appellate jurisdiction over federal district courts in Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.
Smith’s appointment to the court comes as he is personally representing President Donald Trump on an appeal to overturn an $88 million settlement for sexual harassment and defamation against columnist E. Jean Carroll. Trump nominated Smith for the 8th Circuit on March 2.
Trump has frequently nominated members of his personal legal team to top federal positions, including interim Attorney General Todd Blanche, who led Trump’s defense team in a trial over hush money payments to former porn star Stormy Daniels.
After graduation, Smith worked as the general counsel at the Missouri Department of Agriculture before working for U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo, when he was Missouri’s attorney general. Smith then worked for right-wing law firm James Otis Law Group, which he now co-owns, where he was tapped by Trump to handle his appeal.
If the Supreme Court takes the Jean Carroll case, Trump will have to hire another attorney.
Smith is now one of 10 Schmitt alumni to be tapped for a top-ranking legal post by the president, including the Department of Justice’s current solicitor general, D. John Sauer, who argues on behalf of the executive branch before the Supreme Court.
In April, Schmitt described Smith as “one of the finest lawyers” he’s ever worked with, while fellow U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo, said Smith was “a man of utmost integrity.”
After casting his vote for Smith on Monday, Schmitt said in a post on X that he “couldn’t be prouder of him and he is going to be a great judge.”
Democrats opposed Smith’s nomination and worry about his ties to conservative dark money political action committees. Smith is currently a board member of a few of these types of PACs, including the Publius Fund, Yorktown and First Principles Action, which have direct ties to conservative legal activist Leonard Leo and Neil and Ann Corkery.
When asked if he could judge impartially during the Senate Judiciary Committee in April, Smith didn’t distance himself from the companies, but said that as a judge he would operate under an “originalist legal philosophy.”