A network of far-right activists is pushing for two specific Texas judicial nominees
Trump has already nominated one of them. The other could be next.
Last month, Bloomberg Law reported on an effort by a group of conservative activists to ensure that two specific lawyers are nominated and confirmed to the federal bench in Texas. Nineteen individuals signed a May 6 letter urging the nomination of Kasdin Mitchell and Michael Berry to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
Mitchell is currently a partner at Kirkland & Ellis. She has been a member of the Federalist Society since 2010 and the Leonard Leo-chaired Teneo Network since 2013, and she was previously a fellow at the right-wing, anti-democracy Claremont Institute. Five days after that letter was sent to Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, Trump announced Mitchell’s nomination to the court — and she is expected to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a hearing tomorrow.
Berry is the executive director of external affairs and senior counsel at First Liberty Institute — an anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ+ legal organization. According to the letter, he has served as executive director of the center for litigation at the America First Policy Institute and as chief counsel for Senator Cruz. He is also a “long-standing member” of the Conservative Action Project.
Berry has not been announced as a nominee, but there are two more vacancies on the Northern District of Texas that Trump can immediately fill.
As Bloomberg Law noted, “While judicial nominees are often the subject of letters of support, it’s unusual for there to be formal advocacy for a certain candidate to be recommended for a seat.”
The letter is striking not just because of its timing — having been sent to Senators Cornyn and Cruz urging them “to strongly advocate for the formal transmission of these nominations.” It is also important to understand which court this is about and which individuals signed the letter.
“The Northern District of Texas is no ordinary court. It has been at the forefront of landmark litigation touching on regulatory overreach, Second Amendment rights, religious liberty, border security, and the proper limits of executive agency power,” the letter states. “The men and women who serve on its bench must possess not only the highest legal acumen but an unwavering commitment to the original meaning of the Constitution and the rule of law. We are confident that both Kasdin Mitchell and Michael Berry meet that standard in full.”
Nine active district court judges are currently serving as lifetime judges on the Northern District of Texas, and two-thirds are Trump appointees. That includes extremist Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who also previously worked at First Liberty Institute, and who has spent the last seven years demonstrating his unfitness for the judiciary. It also includes Judges Brantley Starr and Mark Pittman, in addition to George W. Bush appointee Judge Reed O’Connor, who has been in the news recently for demanding sensitive data about young people in Rhode Island who have received gender-affirming care.
This court is already full of extremists. And soon, nine out of 12 active lifetime judges on the Northern District of Texas could be Trump appointees — further cementing this court as a judge-shopping destination for the most right-wing causes in the nation.
Additionally, the individuals who signed that May 6 letter represent some of the most extreme, far-right organizations and causes in America. That they have organized themselves to advocate for the nomination of two specific individuals to this court is alarming.
As Bloomberg Law notes, “The lead signatory is Kenneth Blackwell, who works with the Family Research Council and the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute. He declined to comment on how it came together or why it was sent beyond what the letter says.” Blackwell said he understood that Senator Cruz had recommended Berry for the judicial vacancy, though a Cruz spokesperson did not confirm that with Bloomberg Law.
Berry would be the third former Cruz chief counsel to be nominated to a lifetime judgeship during Trump’s second term. Nick Ganjei and Andrew Davis have already been confirmed to the Southern District of Texas and the Western District of Texas, respectively.
Blackwell, you may recall, was part of the sham Pence-Kobach “election integrity” commission during Trump’s first term. That commission, which was led by famed vote suppressors, was forced to disband and ultimately found no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
Also on the letter is Cleta Mitchell, one of the lawyers who worked aggressively to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Mitchell resigned from her law firm on January 5, 2021, following her involvement in a January 2 phone call between Trump and Georgia officials — the call where Trump told them to “find” more than 11,000 votes. Mitchell signed the letter in her capacity as a senior legal fellow at the Conservative Partnership Institute. That institute’s chairman, former Senator Jim DeMint, also signed the letter. ACRU Action Fund President Lori Roman, who is connected to Blackwell through the ACRU’s board and whose action plan calls for voter suppression measures, is on the letter as well.
Another former member of Congress, Rep. Bob McEwen of Ohio, is also listed. Though he signed the letter as a former lawmaker, McEwen also appears to be the executive director of the Council for National Policy, described as “a decades-old coalition of business executives and far-right activists.” Trump has spoken at CNP meetings. At an August 2020 event, he said “I want to thank Bob McEwen, Kelly Shackelford, and Jenny Beth Martin for your tremendous leadership of the CNP.” Shackelford is the president and CEO of the First Liberty Institute. Martin is the chair of Tea Party Patriots Citizen Fund and chair of CNP Action, Inc. — and she also signed the letter in support of Mitchell and Berry.
Tony Perkins and Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, the president and executive vice president, respectively, of the Family Research Council, also signed the letter. According to GLAAD, the Family Research Council “lobbies against LGBTQ rights using homophobic and transphobic discredited research, falsely and harmfully conflates being gay with pedophilia, and spreads harmful inaccurate claims.” Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, is on the letter as well. Liberty Counsel is an anti-LGBTQ hate group, and Staver is one of the fiercest opponents of LGBTQ+ equality in the country. He’s said that LGBTQ activists are like terrorists, claimed LGBTQ advocates are doing “the bidding of the devil,” and said the LGBTQ movement constitutes “the abolition of civil rights.”
Last December, Perkins signed a letter calling on the church “to speak clearly and compassionately on the issue of abortion.” Chad Connelly, founder and president of Faith Wins, signed it as well. “Among the great moral crises of our time, none is more urgent or devastating than abortion—the destruction of countless innocent lives created in the image of God,” it stated. Connelly signed the letter in support of Mitchell and Berry alongside Perkins, too, and they aren’t the only anti-abortion activists pushing for their confirmation.
Other opponents of abortion access include Gary Bauer, president of American Values, Rebecca Weber, CEO of the Association of Mature American Citizens, Marty Dannenfelser, vice president for government relations and coalitions at the Center for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE), Donald Eason, president of CURE, Bob Carlstrom, president of the Carlstrom Group, David Bossie, president of Citizens United, Myron Ebell, chairman-elect of the American Lands Council, Glenn Story, chief executive officer of Patriot Mobile, and Greg Sindelar, interim president of AFPI and CEO of the Texas Public Policy Institute.
Many of these individuals (and other signers of the Mitchell/Berry letter) have joined statements led by the Conservative Action Project taking disturbing positions on reproductive rights. In a February 2024 joint statement calling for the repeal of the Federal Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act (which prevents threats of force or intimidation against reproductive care facilities), dozens of people called the 1994 statute “unconstitutional” and urged Congress “to take swift and aggressive action against it.” Fourteen of the 19 individuals who support the nominations of Mitchell and Berry signed that anti-FACE Act statement. They likely believe that, if confirmed, Mitchell and Berry will be sympathetic to their position.
In an April 2023 statement titled “Conservatives Stand with Sen. Tommy Tuberville Against the DOD’s Abortion Politics,” 14 of the Mitchell/Berry supporters signed on in support of Senator Tuberville’s anti-abortion actions during the Biden administration — saying he was “doing the right thing” and thanking him for his “courage.”
Another signer of that April 2023 statement was Michael Berry himself.
Myron Ebell, who signed both of those statements, is also known for something else:
Ebell, a leading contrarian of the scientific consensus on global warming, leads environmental and energy policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian advocacy group financed in part by the fossil fuel industry. Ebell also helps chair the Cooler Heads Coalition, a group which describes its mission as “dispelling the myths of global warming.” He’s been described as “enemy #1” to the climate change community, and his own bio highlights how he has been named a “climate criminal” by Greenpeace.
During his first term, Trump chose Ebell to head the transition team at the Environmental Protection Agency — because of course he did.
The signers of this letter appear to be united in their appalling anti-voting rights, anti-abortion access, and anti-LGBTQ+ equality views. That they want these two individuals to serve on this particular court is deeply concerning and should alarm everyone who cares about our democracy and the future of equal justice in America.