Prez Trump to nominate District Judge Amul Thapar to Sixth Circuit

As reported in this official press release, "President Donald J. Trump today announced his intent to nominate Judge Amul R. Thapar of Kentucky for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit." Here is more from the statement concerning what I believe is Prez Trump's first judicial nomination other than his selection of Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court:

The son of Indian-American immigrants, Judge Thapar serves on the District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. With his 2008 nomination by President George W. Bush and subsequent confirmation and appointment, Judge Thapar became the Nation’s first Article III judge of South Asian descent. Before his service on the bench, he was the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. Before that, he served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of Ohio and the District of Columbia. He began his legal career in private practice, after clerkships with Judge S. Arthur Spiegel on the District Court for the Southern District of Ohio and then with Judge Nathaniel R. Jones of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

I know Judge Thapar personally and think very highly of him (in part because he asked me to file an amicus brief in one of his highest-profile sentencing cases).  I expect that Judge Thapar will be easily confirmed by the Senate to the Sixth Circuit (though I suppose some Democrats may want to contest even lower-court confirmations as a show of resistance to Prez Trump in particular and to the GOP more generally).  In addition, shrewd SCOTUS watchers might also view this nomination as a sign that Prez Trump will again consider seriously Judge Thapar for the next Supreme Court opening.