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ST. LOUIS — President Donald Trump named four lawyers and judges to fill vacancies on the federal bench here, his first major move to fill lower court vacancies and a victory for U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, who court observers say waited out the Biden administration for years in a gamble to seat more conservative judges.

The four nominees, who Trump announced Tuesday on his family’s social media site, Truth Social, are expected to face little resistance in the GOP-controlled U.S. Senate.

If confirmed, they would represent a stark change in the judicial makeup of the Eastern District of Missouri by making seven of its eight full-time judges Trump appointees.

The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ federal court had previously been a mix of Democratic- and Republican-nominated judges, often made with some compromise if the Missouri’s senators were of a different party than the president.

Trump’s nominees have strong conservative resumes, including two who worked for Hawley’s “federalism unit� when he was Missouri attorney general and two who are members of the conservative judicial advocacy organization the Federalist Society.

They also mark the first nominees to the lower federal courts in Trump’s second term, said Carl Tobias, professor at the University of Richmond School of Law who closely follows federal court nominations. Other states also have high numbers of vacancies, including conservative ones like Texas and Florida, he said. But Hawley must have been “ready to roll.�

“He’s been slow because he’s been cranking out those executive orders and tangling with tariffs,� Tobias said of the president. “It’s a tribute to, probably, Hawley, who prevailed on Trump to do (Missouri judges) earlier.�

Their nominations could finally help ease the workload on the current federal judges in the Eastern District of Missouri. ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½â€™Â four vacancies on the federal bench made it an outlier in the federal courts.

°Õ³ó±ðÌý, the national policymaking body for the federal courts, designated the four vacancies “judicial emergenciesâ€� based on the caseload it placed on other judges — the most of any district court in the country. Three of those judgeships had been vacant more than a year.

Senate tradition allows a state’s senator to block nominations of judges and keep the Senate Judiciary Committee from even voting on a nominee. Former President Joe Biden’s office didn’t nominate even one judge in Missouri, and his administration blamed Hawley for refusing to compromise on a “package� of nominees where each party would get someone they wanted. 

Hawley claimed he had reached a deal with the Biden White House but the administration took no action to nominate judges. Democrats also controlled the Judiciary Committee at the time, but its former chairman, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, allowed the old tradition that let home state senators block a vote. 

Hawley, in a news release Tuesday, said he had been working closely with President Trump to “ensure appointments to Missouri vacancies are prioritized.�

“This country needs good district court judges now more than ever,� Hawley said. “We need judges that are committed to the rule of law and upholding the Constitution, and I’m ecstatic to see President Trump nominate these outstanding individuals to the federal bench.�

President Trump’s four nominees are: 

• Joshua Divine, the current solicitor general of Missouri under Attorney General Andrew Bailey, Hawley’s former chief counsel and a former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Divine is a graduate of Yale Law School and worked for Hawley’s “federalism unit� when Hawley briefly served as Missouri’s attorney general.

• Maria Lanahan, deputy solicitor general in Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office, joining the office while Eric Schmitt — now Missouri’s other U.S. senator —was attorney general. She attended the University of Chicago School of Law and clerked for the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals and was also a lawyer with ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ firm Thompson Coburn. 

• Cristian Stevens, a judge for the Missouri Court of Appeals, appointed in 2021 by former Gov. Mike Parson, and a former top aide to Schmitt when he was attorney general. Stevens attended the University of Missouri School of Law and clerked for the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, then worked as a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri for 15 years. He was raised in St. Charles and is a member of the Federalist Society. 

• Zachary Bluestone, currently an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Missouri focused on violent crimes. He also was a member of the Federalist Society and came to work for the Missouri Attorney General when Hawley took office in 2017, working alongside Divine in Hawley’s “federalism unit.� Bluestone graduated from Harvard Law School and clerked for the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Schmitt applauded the nominations, noting all four worked for him when he served as attorney general. “They are each of the highest integrity and qualification,� Schmitt said on X. “The Eastern District of Missouri will be in firm, constitutionalist hands for the next generation.�

Bailey, who succeeded Schmitt as attorney general, noted that two of the nominees are currently employees of the Missouri Attorney General’s office.

“This is a proud moment for our office and the state of Missouri,� Bailey said in a statement. “Josh (Divine) and Maria (Lanahan) are two of the finest legal minds in America. Their work has set the gold standard for legal excellence, and their nominations are a testament to the powerhouse team we have built in Missouri.�