North Dakota Solicitor General Philip Axt listens to arguments Dec. 18, 2023, before the North Dakota Supreme Court. (Photo by Kyle Martin/For the North Dakota Monitor)
WASHINGTON (North Dakota Monitor) – President Donald Trump said Thursday he would nominate a prominent lawyer in the North Dakota Attorney General’s Office to become North Dakota’s next federal district court judge.
Phil Axt, 39, has served as solicitor general for the office since 2023. If confirmed to the bench, he would fill a vacancy left by former U.S. District Court Judge Dan Traynor. Traynor was confirmed to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in July after Judge Ralph Erickson announced his retirement.
Trump announced Axt’s nomination in a Thursday afternoon Truth Social post. In the post, he highlighted Axt’s experience leading North Dakota in numerous lawsuits against policies enacted by President Joe Biden’s administration.
“Phil is a true warrior, and will always be a strong defender of the Constitution and Rule of Law,” Trump wrote.
Axt has also represented North Dakota in high-profile lawsuits challenging state laws. He argued in defense of North Dakota’s near-total abortion ban and carbon dioxide storage law in front of the North Dakota Supreme Court, and the state’s 2021 redistricting plan in front of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Axt, a Bismarck native, graduated from Yale Law School in 2018. Before that, he served in the U.S. Army and in military intelligence for several years. His resume also lists a legal fellowship with Republican U.S. Sen. John Hoeven’s office in 2016.
After law school, Axt clerked for Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jennifer Elrod and as an attorney for law firm Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher.
Axt on Thursday declined to comment on his nomination.
North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley, a Republican, described Axt as “supremely intelligent and hard working.”
Wrigley said that although most people are older than Axt when they join the federal bench, Trump has nominated other attorneys in their 30s to judgeships around the country.
He said Axt’s experience speaks for itself.
“His work has caught the eye of many of my colleagues across the United States,” Wrigley told the North Dakota Monitor.
Axt was one of 12 people who applied to join the North Dakota Supreme Court last year after former Justice Daniel Crothers announced his retirement. Gov. Kelly Armstrong ultimately appointed former Fargo defense attorney Mark Friese to the position.
Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond in Virginia, said historically most federal judges have had decades of legal experience at the time of their confirmation.
“It used to be a capstone of somebody’s career,” said Tobias, who is an expert on the federal judge nomination process.
Over the past two or three decades, it’s become more common for presidents to nominate younger attorneys to the bench, he said.
“This is a way they can have a legacy long after their presidency,” Tobias said.
Tobias said the Senate Judiciary Committee may hold a hearing on Axt’s nomination in September, but the incoming midterm elections and holiday season could complicate the schedule. Trump also recently announced several other federal bench nominees, he noted.
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