Donald Trump nominates Aileen Cannon for Southern District judge

President Donald Trump nominated Assistant United States Attorney Aileen Cannon for U.S. District Court judge in the Southern District of Florida.

Cannon currently works as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District. She serves in the Criminal Division of the Appellate Section, appearing before the U.S Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on behalf of the United States.

That court covers appeals from federal district courts in Alabama, Georgia and Florida, including the Southern District of Florida.

Overall, she has spent more than six years in the Southern District U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Cannon also has experience in the Major Crimes Division where she handled offenses related to firearms, fraud and immigration, among others. She has also worked for two and a half years in private practice in civil litigation at the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP.

Her appointment to serve as a federal judge won’t be Cannon’s first experience working for such a court. After graduating magna cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School, Cannon spent one year as a law clerk to Judge Steven M. Colloton on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

The Southern District of Florida contains court locations in Fort Pierce, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Key West.

Cannon was one of two nominees named by Trump Wednesday. The President also selected Dirk Paloutzian to a position on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.

Trump partially campaigned on a desire to flood America’s court systems with conservative-leaning judges. He has worked with the Republican-controlled Senate to push those judges through at a rapid pace.

“My motto for the rest of the year is ‘leave no vacancy behind,'” Senate Leader Mitch McConnell said earlier this month.