Trump Nominates Texas Supreme Court Justice James Sullivan to the Western District Bench
President Trump said Nov. 10 that he is nominating Justice James P. Sullivan to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, a week after Sullivan lost his state Supreme Court seat.
President Donald Trump said on Nov. 10 that he is nominating Texas Supreme Court Justice James Sullivan to the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas. An archive of the president's Truth Social post records the message at 11:54 a.m. Eastern that day, 10:54 a.m. Central, and attributes it to the original post at Truth Social. "I am pleased to nominate James Sullivan to serve as Judge on the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas," the archived text reads. Trump described Sullivan as a justice of the Supreme Court of Texas who previously served as general counsel to Gov. Greg Abbott and as assistant solicitor general of Texas, and he said Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn "highly recommend him."
The same day, Sen. Cornyn released an official statement after, in the senator's wording, the president "announced his intention to nominate" Sullivan. "James Sullivan has a wealth of legal experience that makes him eminently qualified for the federal bench, including serving honorably on the Texas Supreme Court," Cornyn said. "I was proud to recommend this Texan to President Trump along with Sen. Cruz, and I look forward to seeing James continue his track record of upholding the rule of law and administering justice fairly as a district judge."
Cornyn's statement says he and Cruz recommended Sullivan after a review and interview process by the bipartisan Federal Judicial Evaluation Committee, a panel of Texas attorneys the two senators established to help identify candidates for judicial vacancies. The panel, the statement says, reviewed applications, interviewed candidates, and made recommendations to the senators, who then interviewed individuals before recommending names to the president.
The official biographical sketch in that statement tracks the president's post and adds detail. Justice James P. Sullivan was appointed to the Supreme Court of Texas by Abbott in January 2025. Before that he served as the governor's general counsel and as assistant solicitor general under then-Attorney General Abbott. He also worked as an appellate litigator in private practice and as an adjunct professor at George Mason University, clerked for Judge Thomas B. Griffith on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, earned a bachelor's degree from Rice University and a law degree from Harvard Law School, and served as an articles editor on the Harvard Law Review. The statement says he lives in Austin with his wife, Alithea, and their son.
A nomination is not a confirmation. The Senate still has to act, and Dock Line has not located a congressional record of a completed confirmation. Sullivan would move, if confirmed, from the state's highest civil court to a federal trial court. The Western District of Texas covers a large swath of the state; the announcement names the district, not a particular courthouse assignment.
The nomination comes after Sullivan lost his state seat last week. The Texas secretary of state's election results page for the Nov. 3, 2026, general election, updated Nov. 4 at 4:59 p.m., shows 100 percent of polling locations reporting in the race for Justice, Supreme Court, Place 2: Democrat Chari Kelly received 5,068,047 votes and Republican incumbent James P. Sullivan received 4,631,182. Those figures are the secretary of state's posted totals as of that update. They are not labeled on the page as a completed official canvass. As we reported when Democrats Win Seats on Texas' Highest Courts for the First Time Since 1994 and Sweep the 15th Court of Appeals, Democrats took all four Supreme Court seats on the ballot. The broader statewide results were covered in Talarico, Hinojosa, Goodwin and Johnson Win as Democrats Lead Every Texas Statewide Race.
The state election and the federal nomination are different offices. Texas voters chose Kelly for Place 2. The president retains the power to nominate federal judges, and the Senate retains the power to consent or to refuse. Those are separate questions, and they should stay separate. "Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour" (Leviticus 19:15). The measure for a trial judge is the same one Cornyn named: whether the person will uphold the law and administer justice fairly. That test belongs in the confirmation process, with a public record, not in a social-media announcement alone.
