President Donald Trump has nominated Benjamin Flowers, former Solicitor General of Ohio, to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. This nomination continues the administration’s pattern of selecting individuals with substantial appellate litigation experience for federal judicial positions.
Benjamin Flowers, born on March 19, 1987, in Harwinton, Connecticut, earned his Bachelor of Arts from The Ohio State University in 2009 and his Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School in 2012. Following law school, he clerked for Judge Sandra Segal Ikuta of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and later for Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States. After his clerkships, Flowers joined the law firm Jones Day, focusing on appellate litigation.
In 2019, Flowers was appointed Solicitor General of Ohio, representing the state in appellate courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States, the Supreme Court of Ohio, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. His tenure included significant cases such as National Federation of Independent Business v. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, where the Supreme Court stayed a federal rule requiring large employers to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations or testing for employees, holding that OSHA lacked the authority to impose such a requirement. Flowers also argued in Shoop v. Twyford and Ohio Adjutant General v. FLRA, and defended an Ohio law prohibiting abortions based on a diagnosis of Down syndrome in Preterm-Cleveland v. McCloud, where the Sixth Circuit upheld the law.
In October 2023, Flowers stepped down as Ohio Solicitor General and joined the law firm Ashbrook Byrne Kresge LLC, now known as Ashbrook Byrne Kresge Flowers LLC. His nomination to the Sixth Circuit aligns with the administration’s ongoing efforts to appoint judges with strong conservative credentials to the federal judiciary.
The Sixth Circuit, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, has jurisdiction over federal appeals from Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee. If confirmed, Flowers would join a bench that has seen several appointments under the current administration, reflecting a broader strategy to influence the ideological balance of the federal courts.
As the nomination process progresses, legal professionals and observers will closely monitor the Senate’s response to Flowers’ nomination, considering his extensive appellate experience and previous roles within both state and federal judicial systems.