Trump picks Justice Department lawyer Eric Hamilton for Nebraska federal bench

President Donald Trump has chosen Justice Department lawyer Eric Hamilton for the US District Court for the District of Nebraska, praising his defence of administration policies in court. In a Truth Social announcement on 19 October 2026, preserved by Trump’s Truth, Trump said Hamilton had done a “phenomenal job” and called him a “fighter”. [1]

Hamilton has served since 2025 as deputy assistant attorney general for the Federal Programs Branch of the department’s Civil Division. His work for Trump predates that role: he was an associate counsel to the president in the White House Counsel’s Office during Trump’s first administration. [2]

He previously served as Nebraska’s solicitor general, the state’s chief civil appeals lawyer. Nebraska announced his appointment in March 2023. He graduated from Stanford Law School in 2013, holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and clerked for federal appeals judge Thomas M. Hardiman. [3]

Hamilton’s litigation experience spans challenges to federal policy as a state lawyer and its defence as a federal official. In his Nebraska role, he argued for states challenging Joe Biden’s order establishing a $15-an-hour minimum wage for work on covered federal contracts. In November 2024, a divided Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel revived their case, holding that the requirement exceeded the authority granted by federal procurement law. [11]

In Oregon, Hamilton appeared for federal officials at a 5 October 2025 hearing after which the district court temporarily blocked National Guard deployments. The court later entered partial judgment for the challengers. The Ninth Circuit temporarily paused the injunction’s restriction on putting Oregon’s Guard under federal control, but lifted that pause in January 2026 after the government withdrew its stay request. A February docket entry records dismissal of the government’s appeal. [9] [10]

More recently, Hamilton was among the lawyers on the government’s brief opposing class certification in Freestyle World, a tariff-refund case. The Court of International Trade certified the class on 8 October 2026. The tariffs at issue had already been held unlawful by the Supreme Court; the class-certification ruling was not a final decision on those importers’ refund claims.