Four new conservative federal judges in Missouri can be the beginning of the end to rogue liberal judges pretending they’re president, says Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley.

Meanwhile, the end of those liberal judges blocking the president from doing his job is Hawley’s bill to prevent the kind of national injunctions those judges are issuing, he says in an exclusive interview with The Heartlander on Thursday.

President Trump has nominated four Missouri lawyers to fill open judgeships in the state:

• Joshua Divine, current Missouri solicitor general and former chief counsel to Missouri’s other U.S. senator, Josh Hawley. Divine graduated Yale Law School and clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, as well as for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
• Maria Lanahan, Divine’s principal deputy solicitor general. She graduated the University of Chicago School of Law and clerked for the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
• Current Missouri Court of Appeals Judge Cristian Stevens, a former first assistant attorney general for Missouri. He graduated the University of Missouri School of Law and clerked for the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
• Zachary Bluestone, currently assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Missouri and former Missouri deputy solicitor general. He graduated Harvard Law School and clerked for the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.

“They’re terrific nominees,” Hawley says. “They will be constitutionalist, rule-of-law judges. There’s four of them, and each one of them is outstanding. 

“We have a federal prosecutor. We have the solicitor general of the State of Missouri – that’s our top courtroom lawyer. We have the deputy solicitor general of the State of Missouri. We’ve got a Missouri state judge. 

“I mean, these are tremendous, tremendous people who already have a tremendous record, and they’re going to be outstanding. 

“And we need ’em. We’ve had vacancies on our federal bench for years now. These are four open seats. That’s a lot of seats. That’s a lot of judges in Missouri. We need to get these filled. Great choices by the president. I can’t wait to vote for them. …

“We need more judges like these Missouri judges. We need fewer like these activist judges who want to be president themselves, who want to pretend to be president. And by the way, the solution of that is to pass my legislation banning nationwide injunctions. That’s the answer.”

Hawley last month filed the Nationwide Injunction Abuse Prevent Act of 2025, which his office says would:

• ban nationwide injunctions by district court judges
• clarify that a district judge’s order only applies to the parties in the case, or within the local judicial district — not to the entire nation
• empower the Executive Branch to effectively pursue a national policy agenda without unreasonable obstruction

As for the four judicial nominees, can we expect contentious confirmation hearings this summer, regardless of the their qualifications?

“Well, the Democrats always try to make everything contentious,” Hawley says. “But I can’t imagine that anybody could seriously object to these Missouri judges. 

“I’m sure the Democrats will huff and puff just because they’re chosen by Donald Trump. But if you look at their records, if you look at what they have done in legal practice, what they’ve done for the state, what they’ve done already for the United States as a federal prosecutor, in one case, I just don’t see how you can argue on any substantive basis. I think they will be confirmed, and I think they’ll be tremendous judges.”

What will Hawley tell his Democrat colleagues to convince them?

“Well, what I say is, listen, there’s no substantive reason to object, and let’s get this done. There is no reason to hold this process up. I don’t think they will be able to hold the process up, to be clear. I’m going to make sure that the Missouri judges go to the front of the line. I want them confirmed immediately. 

“They’re some of the first to be nominated, and I think pretty much the very first district court judges to be nominated [in Trump’s second term]. This is something the president and I have been talking about since the moment he took office in January. I’m delighted to see him move on these.

“And, as I say, we need to confirm these people immediately. We need them on the bench. We need them hearing cases.”

With many conservatives so disappointed in Trump-appointed Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Hawley says not to worry about whether these four nominees are true conservatives.

“I think that these four, their records are pretty darn impressive. And it’s not just the credentials, although that’s fine. It’s what they have done. If you look at their substantive cases, these have been warriors who have gone in and argued for the First Amendment, who have gone in and argued for our Second Amendment rights, who have gone in and argued for religious liberty, for free speech. 

“I mean, they have been champions. They were champions during COVID and fighting against the mask mandates. They were champions in defending the rights of parents and schools, champions in taking on Big Tech. 

“So, you go down the list and hey, it’s pretty good. And then you look at those who are prosecutors, their record in putting violent criminals behind bars. Those are the kind of people I want on the bench.”