Trump names two judicial nominees, including “Trump-tough” Alabama lawyer
Gregory Cook wants you to know that he’s an election law expert who supports Donald Trump.
Late Monday evening, Trump announced two new nominees for lifetime federal judgeships: Anna St. John for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Gregory Cook for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. Trump previously appointed St. John to the Eastern District of Louisiana, where she began active service in April 2026.
I previously wrote about St. John’s nomination, her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, her responses to written questions for the record, her committee vote, and more about her anti-civil rights record in advance of her confirmation. I encourage you to read these stories, in addition to other resources from advocacy organizations committed to a fair federal judiciary.
My focus today is on Gregory Cook, nominated to replace Judge David Proctor on the Northern District of Alabama. When Judge Proctor announced last September that he was taking a form of semi-retirement, Cook wrote on his X account: “Very sorry to see my friend - United States District Judge David Proctor announce that he is taking senior status. What a wonderful example he has set for the judiciary and what a public servant he has been. Thank you Judge Proctor.” Now, Cook may be taking his place on the bench.
Cook is on the older side for Trump’s judicial nominees. He graduated from Duke University in 1984 and from Harvard Law School in 1991, according to his LinkedIn. At Harvard, he worked on the Federalist Society’s Journal of Law and Public Policy with now-Justice Neil Gorsuch. He was in the U.S. Air Force for more than four years before starting a decades-long career in private practice at Balch & Bingham LLP. He has also served as general counsel of the Alabama Republican Party.
In November 2022, Cook was elected to serve as a justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. While running in that election, he released a campaign video positioning himself as the anti-woke hero that Alabama needs on the bench. “The woke mob attacks our Alabama values. They mock our religion, families, and election laws. That’s why we need proven conservative Greg Cook,” the video’s voiceover stated, while it flashed images of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. “The woke mob won’t like Greg Cook. But that’s why we need him.”
In April of that year, Cook was on a radio show to explain why he decided to run. “I believe in election law [and] believe in election security,” Cook said. “And after what we’ve seen in this last election, it really meant a lot to me to say look: we need someone on the court who knows election law really well and cares about following the law, the letter of the law.”
Cook was referring to the 2020 election that Trump lost. He pointed to states like Georgia and Pennsylvania and claimed “those states didn’t follow their laws.” He said he was particularly interested in what happened in Pennsylvania “because their Supreme Court agreed with their secretary of state, who was a Democrat, and the Supreme Court in Pennsylvania has a Democratic majority, and they let the secretary of state in Pennsylvania ignore some of the written laws. And that really just should never happen.”
Cook was mad that Democrats in Pennsylvania were allowed to make decisions about elections and count votes fairly and accurately in ways that didn’t benefit Trump.
During that radio show, Cook was asked what Alabama does right that other states can learn from. “The biggest thing I think we do right is our voter ID law. Our voter ID law applies both in person and it applies if you’re voting absentee. Our voter ID law restricts the particular kinds of IDs that you can use,” he said. He criticized Georgia’s ID law used in the 2020 election for only applying to in-person voters.
He also noted during the interview that he “even went to Florida for the Bush-Gore hanging chad fight.” An archived version of Cook’s campaign website says this multiple times. On the homepage, Cook is described this way: “Greg Cook is an Air Force veteran, patriot, father, and lifelong conservative Republican. His legal experience includes extensive work with election laws. Greg represented conservative interests during the 2000 Florida recount and was a delegate for President Trump.”
On the ‘about’ page, Cook’s Republican bonafides are explained further:
After finishing law school, Greg moved back to Alabama to begin practicing law in Birmingham. Over the next three decades, Greg established himself as a strong and active member of the Republican Party. In 2000, he served as volunteer attorney for the Bush vs. Gore legal battle in Florida, where Greg helped supervise the hand recounting of the famous hanging-chad ballots. Locally, Greg served on the Jefferson County Republican Steering Committee, Executive Committee, and as Legal Counsel to the Jefferson County GOP. Greg has also served on the Alabama Republican Party for almost 15 years including the past 4 years as General Counsel for the Alabama Republican Party.
In a campaign video embedded on his website, Cook referenced the 2000 election when saying that “We could have used fair judges when activists tried to decide our president. Fortunately, we had Justices Thomas and Scalia, who put the rule of law first. I served as a volunteer attorney during the 2000 Florida recount, where I saw how activists tried to steal an election. Locally, I’ve been legal counsel for the Alabama Republican Party, ensuring that Alabama’s voter ID law is enforced and our elections are secure.”
Astonishingly, he made these statements — during his campaign in 2022 — about activists in 2000 trying to “decide our president” and “steal an election.” The January 6 insurrection was the previous year, but he made no reference to that.
“As an attorney for the past 30 years, I see the direction our country is going — and I don’t like it,” Cook said in the video, which was created during the Biden administration. “Judges should not legislate from the bench, but should apply the law as it is written. Instead of calling balls and strikes, activist judges can deliver home runs for progressive policies. We cannot allow this to happen in Alabama.” As Cook said these words, images flashed across the screen — including signs supporting abortion access and gun safety measures, and an image of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris high-fiving.
“I proudly served as a delegate for Donald Trump because he told it like it was. I’m a conservative, grounded in principle, who believes that a judge is there to apply the law as it is written,” Cook said in the video.
Given Cook’s fixation on his Bush v. Gore volunteer efforts, and his claims that he is an election law expert who supports restrictive voting laws, it is not surprising that Trump chose him to serve on the federal bench. Trump has been appointing anti-voting judges since his first term.
During Trump’s second term, the Senate has already confirmed vote suppressor Edmund LaCour to serve as a lifetime judge on the Northern District of Alabama and MAGA extremist Phil Williams to serve as US Attorney in the Northern District as well. If Cook is confirmed, seven of the eight active district court judgeships on this court will be Trump appointees (and all of them are white).
More to come.
Trump’s announcements from Monday evening are below:
I am pleased to announce the nomination of Anna St. John to serve as a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Anna is currently a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, and was previously President and General Counsel of the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute and Center for Class Action Fairness, where she championed Religious Liberty, Free Speech, and protecting Women’s Sports. Anna is a proud Graduate of LSU and Columbia Law School, and clerked for Judge Rhesa Barksdale. Anna will continue to defend Americans’ Constitutional Rights on the Fifth Circuit. Congratulations Anna! President DONALD J. TRUMP
I am pleased to announce the nomination of Justice Gregory Cook to serve as a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. Greg was elected to the Alabama Supreme Court in 2022. Before joining the Bench, he had a private practice career spanning more than three decades. Greg also served our Country in the United States Air Force, attaining the rank of Captain. Greg is a Graduate of Duke University and Harvard Law School. The people of the Great State of Alabama are in good hands with Greg on the Federal Bench. Congratulations Greg! President DONALD J. TRUMP