Judge Leslie Southwick of the Fifth Circuit has told President Trump he will take senior status once his successor is confirmed. Two days later, Trump nominated Todd Butler, a Mississippi-based lawyer and former Southwick clerk, to fill the seat. The nomination was announced in a Trump social media post that praised Butler as a graduate of Mississippi State and Mississippi College of Law and noted his prior clerkship with Southwick.
A column in Reason argues the sequence was not coincidental. It says Southwick had previously resisted encouragement to step down, but the timing of his announcement, shortly before the midterms and only after several en banc cases were heard, points to an understanding that his former clerk would get the seat. The column also notes that Butler’s most prominent case was a Supreme Court loss: he represented the government in Olivier v. City of Brandon, a street-preaching case that ended in a 9-0 defeat.
The column calls the arrangement a “fix” and contends that Butler has not been a notable figure in conservative legal circles. It also suggests that an earlier retirement could have invited opposition from the right and scuttled the nomination. Because this is the only source, the article presents the column’s analysis without corroboration or counterpoint.