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  • 6/10/2025
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) questioned Whitney D. Hermandorfer, nominee to be United States Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit, about judicial independence.

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Transcript
00:00Are you done? You got an opening statement?
00:04I was told to keep it brief, so that's what I tried to do, Chairman.
00:08Okay, then we will go to questions.
00:12You've obtained clerkships.
00:16It's an impressive accomplishment for a young lawyer to be before Supreme Court clerkships.
00:24It's a mark of great academic distinction.
00:27It seems to me, without knowing all the history of clerks, that you're kind of in a category all by yourself,
00:36having clerked for three sitting Supreme Court justices, one-third of the court.
00:42What lessons from your clerkship will you take to the bench if confirmed as a circuit judge?
00:48Clerking for the distinguished jurist for whom I clerked was a tremendous honor,
00:59something I never anticipated I have the privilege of doing.
01:02I learned, Chairman, the importance of the judicial process.
01:07We have a deliberative judicial process and an adversarial system for a reason.
01:11We receive briefing.
01:14We hear argument from the parties.
01:17The jurists discuss issues with their colleagues.
01:21And through that process, the correct rule of law emerges, and that is what is to be followed.
01:28And that might sometimes diverge from how you originally thought a case might come out.
01:34So the importance of the process is one thing I learned.
01:39Of course, I had exposure at all three levels of the federal judiciary to a tremendous volume and array of types of legal matters,
01:47from sentencing, hearing revocations, to the most meaningful constitutional questions at the Supreme Court of our generation.
01:56So I learned that each case, no matter its importance to the nation, is important to the parties and should be treated with respect and care.
02:06And finally, I learned that you can go through that process and issue the correct rule of law.
02:12And in our system, people might not always agree with the decisions that courts hand down.
02:17And it's important to understand that in our system, decisions will not always be popular and that it takes grit and courage and determination to carry out your Article III obligation under the Constitution.
02:32And so those are things I witnessed in the jurists for whom I clerked and I would try to take with me to the bench.
02:38You've also practiced law at a highly regarded law firm, and you've led litigation for the state of Tennessee and some of our country's most important recent cases.
02:51Nevertheless, some progressive organizations have suggested that you lack the requisite experience to be a circuit judge.
03:01So can you tell us how many cases you've served as counsel for a party or as an amicus?
03:08So my best estimate is I've served as counsel in probably about 80 to 90 cases, distinct matters ranging from state court, federal court, primarily practiced in the federal courts of appeals and federal district court.
03:27And so I think recently the cases have come fast and furiously, and I've been privileged to handle a number of nationally significant matters on behalf of my home state of Tennessee, as well as many other states.
03:47Have your experience as a lawyer for the state of Tennessee and on behalf of private clients prepared you to be a judge of the Sixth Circuit?
03:55I would hope they have, Chairman.
03:59Again, I've represented clients at the law firm of all types, from individual criminal defendants to asylum seekers to businesses to Fortune 100 companies to mom-and-pop stores.
04:12In my current role as director of the strategic litigation unit, I've recruited seven to eight attorneys into our office to litigate some of the nation's most significant and complex constitutional, statutory, and administrative procedure matters on behalf of Tennesseans.
04:31And through that experience, I have extensive knowledge of the federal court system and of how to approach many of the legal issues that would come before me if I were so fortunate as to be confirmed to the Sixth Circuit.
04:46My last question is, please describe what judicial independence means to you.
04:55So to me, judicial independence goes to the heart of the structure of our constitutional system.
05:02The founders set up three branches of government, co-equal branches, and the founders chose to vest accountability for two of those branches in the electoral process.
05:15So lawmakers are elected, and the president, so too, is accountable to the people through the electoral process.
05:24By contrast, the framers placed accountability for Article III judges in a different place.
05:31And that is, judges are intentionally not accountable to electoral politics or to the majority in a political sense.
05:41Instead, they're accountable to the Constitution and to the rules that bind the exercise of the Article III judicial power.
05:50And that includes limiting judgments to cases or controversies.
05:54It means adhering to the jurisdictional limits that bind courts.
06:01And it means understanding that with the power to issue binding rulings that, in some cases, control the actions of private parties and coordinate branches of government,
06:11with that power comes great responsibility to ensure that rulings are proper in scope and legality.
06:17Thank you for answering my question.
06:19Now it's up to Senator Durbin.
06:22But before he takes over, Senator Hawley, you will take over for me now, please.
06:31Go ahead, Senator.

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