The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate on Monday confirmed Whitney Hermandorfer to the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, giving President Donald Trump his first judicial appointment of his second term. The chamber voted 46-42 strictly along party lines, with a dozen senators absent. Hermandorfer will succeed Judge Jane Branstetter Stranch, an Obama appointee who is assuming semi-retirement. Hermandorfer, 38, heads the strategic litigation unit in the Tennessee attorney general’s office, where she defended the state’s near-total abortion ban and challenged a Biden-era rule protecting transgender students. A graduate of Yale Law School, she clerked for Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett and for Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he served on the D.C. Circuit. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the chamber intends to fill roughly 50 vacancies with judges who, in his words, “understand the proper role of a judge.” Hermandorfer is the first of 15 nominees the White House has named so far, and her confirmation raises Trump’s lifetime judicial appointments to 235, matching the total compiled by former President Joe Biden. Democrats argued the nominee’s limited courtroom experience and alignment with Trump’s agenda underscore a partisan push to reshape the judiciary.