Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall applauded the confirmation of Andrew Brasher to serve as district judge on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama on Wednesday. Marshall appointed Edmund LaCour to Brasher’s former position as solicitor general of Alabama.
“It is hard to imagine anyone who is more qualified to take on the responsibility of a federal judgeship than Andrew Brasher,” Marshall said. “He brings to the federal bench impeccable professional credentials as Alabama’s solicitor general and deputy solicitor general for the last seven years, during which time he successfully argued cases before Alabama Supreme Court judges and U.S. Supreme Court justices.”
Marshall appointed LaCour to fill the vacancy at solicitor general.
“I am pleased to announce the appointment of Edmund LaCour as the new Solicitor General of the State of Alabama,” Marshall said. “Mr. LaCour, a Wiregrass native, draws upon an impressive legal and academic background to lead my office’s legal team. He has served as Alabama’s deputy solicitor general since December 2018 and has already made his mark. In addition to arguing multiple appeals, he has drafted briefs in several important cases, including the state’s response to Mike Hubbard’s Alabama Supreme Court appeal. I look forward to his continued service on behalf of the state of Alabama here in the Attorney General’s Office.”
U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, praised the confirmation of Brasher.
“Andrew Brasher is an outstanding choice to serve as a district judge for the Middle District of Alabama,” Shelby said. “His judicial temperament and vast legal experience make him well suited to assume this new role. I congratulate him on this honor and am confident that his integrity and commitment to the rule of law will further contribute to the high standard of our nation’s judicial system.”
“Andrew Brasher is equally well versed in the law from an academic perspective as a cum laude law graduate of Harvard Law School where he was a member of the Harvard Law Review, as well as a former law clerk to Judge William H. Pryor Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit,” Marshall added. “I was proud to support Mr. Brasher’s nomination by President (Donald) Trump, and I wish him all the best as the newest judge on the U.S. Middle District Court here in Alabama.”
In addition to Brasher’s confirmation, six Alabama judicial nominees, initially nominated by Trump in 2017, have been confirmed. Corey Maze, who was nominated by Trump in 2018 to be a U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Alabama, has been voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee and is awaiting confirmation by the full Senate.
Shelby said historic obstruction by Democrats has occurred during this administration’s attempt to confirm judges. The previous six presidents combined faced a total of 24 procedural votes on judicial nominees while Trump faced more than 100 during his first two years in office.
Last month, the Senate voted to reduce post-cloture debate time from 30 hours to two hours for certain executive and federal judicial nominations, including district court appointments, preventing further delay on confirming nominees.
Brasher was the solicitor general of Alabama before his nomination. In that role, he defended Alabama’s Sanctity of Marriage law, anti-abortion rights legislation passed by the legislature, Alabama’s voting rights law and filed briefs on behalf of the Alabama Attorney General’s Office opposing former President Barack Obama’s expansion of environmental laws.
This drew the ire of Democrats who had made a point of trying to block his nomination.
Attorney General Luther Strange appointed Brasher as solicitor general of Alabama in 2014. Brasher has served as deputy solicitor general since 2011.
