Kasdin Miller Mitchell, a Montgomery native and Montgomery Academy graduate who served as Alabama’s assistant solicitor general, is headed to the federal bench in Texas.
The U.S. Senate voted 49-45 last week to confirm Mitchell as a U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Texas, where she will sit in the Dallas Division. U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-Montgomery) voted to confirm her. No Democrat voted in her favor.
Mitchell fills the seat vacated by Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn, a Clinton appointee who took senior status in 2023.
President Donald Trump nominated Mitchell on May 11. In his announcement on Truth Social, Trump said Mitchell “has a strong record of fiercely defending the Second Amendment and Religious Liberty, which are always under siege by the Radical Left.”
Mitchell’s legal career began in Montgomery. After earning her law degree from Yale Law School in 2012, she went to work for the State of Alabama as assistant solicitor general in the office of then-Attorney General Luther Strange.
In that role, Mitchell signed Alabama’s brief in Shelby County v. Holder, the challenge brought by Shelby County that the U.S. Supreme Court decided in the county’s favor in 2013.
“Things in the South have, indeed, changed,” the brief stated.
At her Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this year, Mitchell stood behind the state’s work.
“I stand by the arguments that Alabama made in that brief,” Mitchell said. “And I believe we made good faith arguments under the law in the best interest of our client.”
Mitchell later practiced at Birmingham-based Maynard Cooper & Gale, now, Maynard Nexsen. There she represented Governor Robert Bentley in his move to end Planned Parenthood Southeast’s Medicaid provider agreement.
She clerked for Chief Judge William H. Pryor Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Pryor is a Mobile native and a former Alabama attorney general. She then clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas on the U.S. Supreme Court.
In written answers to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mitchell named Thomas and Pryor as the judges foundational to her judicial philosophy.
“Both Justice Thomas and Chief Judge Pryor faithfully uphold their judicial oath. As their law clerk, I saw them decide cases based on what the law requires, regardless of their personal policy preferences,” Mitchell wrote. “They both instilled in me the greatest respect for the judiciary and taught me the importance of doing the hard work to find the right answer under the law.”
Mitchell is a litigation partner in the Dallas office of Kirkland & Ellis. Her practice has included trial and appellate work for Facebook, Dow and Boeing. She served on the trial team that won a complete defense verdict for 3M in a bellwether trial in the largest multidistrict litigation in history.
Before law school, Mitchell earned her undergraduate degree from Yale University in 2007. She then worked at the White House as assistant press secretary to First Lady Laura Bush.
U.S. Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, both Texas Republicans, recommended Mitchell to Trump. Their recommendation followed a review by the Federal Judicial Evaluation Committee, a panel of Texas attorneys the senators established to vet judicial candidates.
“Kasdin Mitchell is a well-regarded litigator and a former clerk for some of our nation’s sharpest legal minds, and it’s no surprise that President Trump selected her to serve as a U.S. District Judge,” Cornyn said after the vote.
“The Northern District of Texas is fortunate to be gaining such a bright attorney and trusted public servant who will excel on the federal bench, and I am glad she has been confirmed.”
Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270.
