Trump Moves to Put Ousted Texas Justice James Sullivan on the Federal Bench

President Donald Trump is moving to nominate Texas Supreme Court Justice James Sullivan, whom Texas voters removed from the court on Tuesday, to a lifetime federal judgeship in Austin, Reuters reported Thursday, citing Senate records.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has received paperwork to begin considering Sullivan for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, according to Reuters. Trump has not announced the nomination, and the White House and Sullivan did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. Sullivan would fill the seat of Judge Alan Albright, who resigned effective August 31, according to Nomination Notes, a newsletter that covers federal judicial nominations and obtained the questionnaire.

Sullivan lost the Place 2 seat on the Texas Supreme Court to Chari Kelly, a justice on the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin, 52.3 percent to 47.7 percent, in unofficial returns. In the questionnaire sent to the committee, he wrote that his candidacy to retain the seat “was unsuccessful,” Reuters reported. Gov. Greg Abbott appointed Sullivan, 45, to the court in January 2025. He had served as Abbott’s general counsel and, earlier, as an assistant solicitor general when Abbott was attorney general.

The timing is set by Washington’s calendar. Republicans control the U.S. Senate until January, when Democrats take over the chamber, and Reuters reported that the nomination will be taken up in the weeks before that handover. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the outgoing chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has scheduled hearings on judicial nominees in consecutive weeks starting November 10. No hearing date has been set for Sullivan. The committee usually waits 28 days after receiving a nominee’s questionnaire before holding a hearing, according to Nomination Notes.

Federal district judges are nominated by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and they serve for life. Texans elect the judges of their own Supreme Court and voted Sullivan off it on Tuesday. Whether he takes a lifetime seat on the federal bench in Austin will be settled in Washington, by a Senate in which Texas holds two of 100 votes.