Dallas Fifth Court of Appeals Justice Ada Brown

The White House on Friday announced President Donald Trump's nomination of two candidates to fill federal judicial vacancies in Texas and Virginia.

Trump nominated Ada E. Brown of Texas to serve as district judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas and David John Novak of Virginia to serve as District Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Brown is a justice on Texas' Fifth Court of Appeals and previously practiced at McKool Smith in Dallas, where she focused on commercial litigation and patent infringement matters, according to a White House press release. She also served as a judge on the Dallas County Criminal Court and as a prosecutor in the Dallas County District Attorney's Office.

Brown, an Emory University School of Law graduate, has also served as a commissioner for the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education and as a commissioner for the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Novak, a Villanova University School of Law graduate, is a magistrate judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and a professor at both the University of Richmond School of Law and the William & Mary Law School, teaching national security law.

He also spent 18 years as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, including as chief of the Criminal Division and as Senior Litigation Counsel, according to the White House.

The judicial nominations are the latest in a cluster of activity regarding Trump's judicial picks.

On March 12, the Senate confirmed New Jersey lawyer Paul Matey to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

With Matey's confirmation, the Third Circuit shifts to a 7-6 majority of Republican appointees, making it the first court of appeals in the nation to see its composition switch under Trump, who has been clear on his goal to remake the federal judiciary with conservative judges. Trump previously appointed Stephanos Bibas and David Porter to the 14-member Court of Appeals.

After a vote to close debate on the Matey nomination was split on party lines, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey, sharply criticized Republicans for advancing Matey's nomination without the consent of the two home-state senators.

“It's shameful. So long as this president keeps packing our courts with corporate-friendly, Federalist Society judges, the Republican majority is willing to destroy a process Sen. Orrin Hatch once called the 'last remaining check on the president's judicial appointment power,'” Menendez said in remarks on the Senate floor.

A former senior counsel and deputy chief counsel to Gov. Chris Christie, Matey also was senior vice president and general counsel at University Hospital in Newark before joining Lowenstein Sandler in Roseland, New Jersey, as a partner in September 2018.

Matey attended the University of Scranton and Seton Hall University School of Law. Before joining Christie in the governor's office, he was an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, focusing on securities, health care and investor fraud, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and child exploitation.

Matey replaces Julio Fuentes, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1999 and went on senior status in 2016.

Matey was one of 51 federal court picks Trump renominated in January.