Trump names Todd Butler as choice for Fifth Circuit appeals court

US President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social on 1 October 2026 that he had chosen Mississippi lawyer Todd Butler for the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Trump praised Butler’s experience representing law enforcement and predicted that he would protect the Constitution and the rule of law. [1]

Butler is intended to succeed Judge Leslie Southwick. His firm, Phelps Dunbar, says he previously clerked for Southwick. Senators Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith endorsed the choice and said they would work for Butler’s confirmation. The federal courts list Southwick’s move to senior status as a future vacancy, following notification on 28 September, but give no effective date. [2] [3] [5]

Phelps Dunbar identifies Butler as managing partner of its Jackson office. It says he graduated *summa cum laude* from Mississippi State University and Mississippi College School of Law. The firm reports 20 oral arguments in appellate courts across the US and lists several Fifth Circuit cases in which he argued. [5]

Trump called Butler a strong defender of law enforcement. Phelps Dunbar has described his representation of a municipality and two officers in a successful appeal. Butler also argued for the City of Brandon before the Supreme Court in street preacher Gabriel Olivier’s challenge to restrictions on protests near an amphitheatre. [1] [9] [6] [7]

On 20 March 2026, the Supreme Court unanimously overturned a Fifth Circuit ruling that had blocked Olivier’s forward-looking legal challenge. It held that his prior conviction did not bar his bid to stop future enforcement of the ordinance. The US government had filed a brief seeking to have the lower-court ruling set aside. The court rejected a procedural position advanced by the city but did not decide whether the city’s protest ordinance was constitutional.