Trump withdraws Rudofsky nomination for federal judge post in Arkansas

President Donald Trump nominated Arkansas Supreme Court Justice and former state Republican Party chairman Cody Hiland to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday, withdrawing his nomination of a federal judge he originally named for the post.

Trump nominated U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky to the appeals court in August. The federal judge previously issued rulings narrowing the Voting Rights Act and in favor of a state ban on “indoctrination” in the classroom.

Hiland was nominated to the Arkansas Supreme Court to fill a vacancy by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in 2023, and was elected to a full term in March.

The nominee swap comes a week after Democrats won control of Congress, raising the odds that Trump nominees will have a more difficult time being confirmed in the Senate next year. If Rudofsky was confirmed to the 8th Circuit bench, it would have created a vacancy in the Eastern District of Arkansas.

Trump previously praised Rudofsky as someone who would be a “rock solid defender of the Constitution,” in a post on Truth Social announcing the nomination. 

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Hiland served as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas during Trump’s first term in office, and was the prosecuting attorney for Faulkner, Van Buren and Searcy counties prior to that. After leaving the federal prosecutor’s office, he worked for the Arkansas Department of Public Safety and for Sanders’ 2022 campaign. He became chairman of the Republican Party of Arkansas the same year.

Since joining the Arkansas Supreme Court in 2023, Hiland authored an opinion striking down a state law that changed which state courts could hear constitutional challenges.

If confirmed, Hiland would replace retiring Judge Bobby Shepherd, a nominee of former President George W. Bush and father of Republican state Rep. Matthew Shepherd and U.S. District Judge Thomas Shepherd.

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said on the social media platform X that Hiland’s experience made him an “excellent choice” for the appeals court.