Texas Office of the Attorney General issued the following announcement on March 8.
Attorney General Ken Paxton today commended President Trump’s nomination of current Texas Deputy First Assistant Attorney General Brantley Starr to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Dallas.
“Brantley Starr is a brilliant attorney, a dedicated public servant and a trusted legal advisor on my executive team. Because he has such a stellar career record of serving Texas by standing up for the rule of law with professionalism and integrity, I knew this day was inevitable,” Attorney General Paxton said. “Although I will be sad to lose his expertise and counsel, I’m thrilled for Brantley and his family and I thank him for his service to the state of Texas. Brantley will make an outstanding federal judge.”
Starr is a native of Abilene and attended Abilene Christian University. After graduating from the University of Texas School of Law, he clerked for Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett, then served as assistant solicitor general under Ted Cruz. Starr practiced commercial and appellate litigation at King & Spalding, L.L.P., and as staff attorney to Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman. He returned to the Texas attorney general’s office in 2015 as deputy attorney general for legal counsel (primarily supervising the Opinion Committee and the other transactional divisions) before his promotion to deputy first assistant attorney general (where he also oversees the office’s civil and criminal litigation).
Starr represents President Trump’s eighth confirmed or pending nomination to a court involving a former or current staffer of the Texas attorney general’s office. Former Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett, James Ho, Kyle Duncan and Andrew Oldham were confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit last year. In January, the president nominated former Texas Deputy Solicitor General Sean Jordan to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Plano; he renominated former Deputy First Assistant David Morales to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas and current Texas Deputy Solicitor General Cam Barker to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.