Trump Judges Include Michigan Justice Joan Larsen, a Conservative Who Clerked for Scalia

President Donald Trump on Monday named Justice Joan Larsen of the Michigan Supreme Court to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. Shortly after, nearly three dozen professors at the University of Michigan Law School, where Larsen once taught, sent a letter to urge the state's two Democratic senators to support her nomination.

Related: Trump unveils judicial nominations for lower courts

They called on Senators Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters to support Larsen's "top-flight legal analysis." They made it clear they don't all share Larsen's views on "judicial methodology," but they agree she would be an "outstanding" federal judge.

"Our only regret," they wrote, "is that she will no longer be able to continue as a Justice on the Michigan Supreme Court, where she has served with distinction." Using similar language, Michigan's Republican governor, Rick Snyder—who in 2015 appointed Larsen to the state's high court—has expressed his disappointment at the possibility of losing Larsen on the state Supreme Court.

Both Peters and Stabenow have vowed to thoroughly review Larsen's record before any Senate consideration of her nomination. Peters added that "judicial independence has never been more important for the strength of our democracy," given Trump's recent attacks on federal judges, accusing them of suspending his travel ban and suggesting they risk national security.

Larsen, 48, was one of nine new names Trump revealed this week to fill various federal court vacancies, and one of only two from that list whom he had considered for the Supreme Court. She has written four Michigan Supreme Court opinions since she first started serving on the bench in fall 2015. In November, she won a partial term to serve the two years remaining in the term of a justice who resigned.

Her most recent decision came Monday. The court unanimously decided that the state Department of Health and Human Services didn't reasonably accommodate a woman with an intellectual disability who had her parental rights termination but was seeking reunification with her two children, The Detroit News reported.

And in what was arguably her highest-profile opinion, published in April 2016, the court unanimously decided that a staffer for former Republican U.S. Representative Thaddeus McCotter could be tried on a felony charge for forging petition signatures to try to land the legislator a spot on Michigan's 2012 ballot.

Upon her nomination to the state Supreme Court, Larsen said she would be a strict constructionist. "I believe in enforcing the laws as written by the Legislature and signed by the governor," she said, The Detroit News reported at the time. "I don't think judges are a policy-making branch of the government."

She is a Federalist Society member who clerked for the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, as well as for Judge David Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Just last month, Judge Neil Gorsuch officially replaced Scalia when he was sworn in as an associate justice of the Supreme Court, in the Rose Garden of the White House.

Larsen also worked with the firm of Sidley and Austin in Washington, D.C., and served as deputy assistant U.S. attorney general who provided legal counsel to the George W. Bush administration in 2002 and 2003. She's married and has two school-aged children.

It's generally expected that the Senate will easily confirm each of the nine individuals on Trump's new list, since lower-court nominees only require a simple majority. (A reality that came after the Democrats altered filibuster rules in 2013.)

The Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit has jurisdiction over federal appeals arising from Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee. If confirmed, Larsen would replace Michigan Judge David McKeague, who is taking "senior status," meaning he will semi-retire.