Steven Menashi Steven Menashi.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced a new round of judicial nominees, including a senior associate White House counsel and former clerk to Justice Samuel Alito for a spot on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Steven Menashi, an ex-Kirkland & Ellis partner who is also serving as a special assistant to the president, will now be considered by the Senate for a spot on the powerful Second Circuit.

Menashi joined the White House in 2018 after a stint as acting general counsel for the Education Department. He earned a salary of $145,000 during his time at the White House.

Before joining the federal government, Menashi taught at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. He previously did a stint at Kirkland & Ellis in New York, where he represented clients like Teva Pharmaceuticals, Ranbaxy Inc. and Johnson & Johnson, according to a 2017 financial disclosure form.

Menashi also moonlighted as a research fellow at New York University Law School and Opperman Institute for Judicial Administration.

He clerked for Alito during the Supreme Court’s 2010-2011 term, alongside Day Pitney partner John Cerreta, Garrick Alcarez Sevilla and Tara Stuckey Morrissey.

The White House also announced picks for five district courts.

>> Sarah Pitlyk was nominated for a seat in the Eastern District of Missouri. Pitlyk was a staunch advocate for Justice Brett Kavanaugh—who she clerked for on the D.C. Circuit—during his confirmation hearings for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Responding to claims that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted a high school classmate, Christine Blasey Ford, in the 1980s in suburban Maryland, Pitlyk said last year “it is very hard to find this allegation credible, especially when it has come to light in such a transparently politically motivated manner.” Kavanaugh strongly denied Ford’s claims.

Pitlyk is a special counsel at the Thomas More Society, a conservative firm based out of Chicago known for advocating for pro-life causes. She also worked for Clark & Sauer in St. Louis and was an associate for Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C. Pitlyk attended Yale Law School, as well as Georgetown University and Boston College.

>> Richard E. Meyers II was nominated for the Eastern District of North Carolina. The former federal prosecutor and University of North Carolina law professor’s nomination brings to a close the controversy over previous nominee Thomas Farr, who was initially tapped for the long-vacant spot.

South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate, shut down Farr’s bid for the bench to an end last year when he announced he would oppose the judicial nominee over measures backed by Farr that would have helped disenfranchise black voters.

Myers is the director of trial advocacy at UNC. Previously, he served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina and the Central District of California. He also clerked for Judge David Sentelle for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and worked at O’Melveny & Myers.

>> Jodi Dishman was picked for a district judge for the Western District of Oklahoma. She is a shareholder at McAfee & Taft in Oklahoma City, and also worked in the San Antonio office of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.

Dishman clerked for Judges Edward C. Prado and Carolyn Dineen King on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and went to the University of Oklahoma College of Law.

>> Karen Marston was nominated to be a district judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. She is currently the assistant U.S. attorney for the district, leading the narcotics and organized crime section.

She previously served as the assistant U.S. attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, and was an adjunct professor at Temple University Beasley School of Law. Marston earned her J.D. from Wake Forest University School of Law.

>> Anuraag “Raag” Singhal was nominated as a district judge for the Southern District of Florida. He’s currently a circuit court judge for the 17th Judicial Circuit for Broward County, Florida. Singhal was tapped for that seat by then-Florida Gov. Rick Scott in 2011.

Singhal made headlines last year over his rulings surrounding Broward County election official Brenda Snipes. He found that Snipes—a target of many Republicans—violated federal and state law by too quickly destroying ballots from a 2016 congressional election.

Before then, Singhal worked in private practice in Fort Lauderdale, and was a prosecutor in the state attorney’s office.

 

 

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