RNLA is pleased to support the nomination of Jesus Osete to the Western District of Missouri. The letter below was submitted following confirmation hearing which can be viewed here. View RNLA's letter in PDF form here.

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Dear Chairman Grassley and Ranking Member Durbin:

The Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA), the national organization of Republican attorneys, submits this letter concerning the nomination of Jesus A. Osete to serve as a United States District Judge for the Western District of Missouri. RNLA’s mission includes advancing professionalism; open, fair, and honest elections; career opportunity; and Republican ideals. RNLA therefore draws the Committee’s attention to Mr. Osete’s record of public service, particularly his leadership in the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.

Mr. Osete’s career reflects substantial experience in appellate litigation, government service, and assisting judicial decision-making. After graduating from Washington University School of Law, where he served as Senior Executive Editor of the Washington University Law Review, he clerked for Chief Justice Zel M. Fischer of the Supreme Court of Missouri and Judge Bobby E. Shepherd of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. He later served as Missouri Deputy Solicitor General and Deputy Attorney General for Special Litigation, advising then-Attorney General Eric Schmitt and litigating matters in state and federal courts. He subsequently served as General Counsel to Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft and practiced with Bryan Cave’s Appellate and Supreme Court Group.

Since May 2025, Mr. Osete has served in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, first as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General and, since August 2025, as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General. As the Division’s second-highest-ranking official and a direct adviser to the Assistant Attorney General, he helps oversee enforcement of federal civil rights laws, manages the Division’s sections and attorneys, including the Appellate Section, and coordinates major investigations and litigation. The position requires legal judgment about when federal enforcement is warranted, how constitutional limits apply, and how statutory protections for individual rights should be vindicated in court.^[1]

The public record shows those responsibilities in consequential litigation. In the Department’s challenge to California’s 2025 congressional redistricting plan, DOJ identified Mr. Osete as the official who would represent the Department after Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon’s recusal. His name also appears on the Department’s complaint in United States v. District of Columbia, challenging firearms restrictions under the Second Amendment, and on a 2026 Title VII complaint against the Regents of the University of California alleging discrimination against Jewish and Israeli employees at UCLA. These matters concern different rights and statutes, but each reflects deep understanding of the law and places disputed questions of government power, equal treatment, and individual liberty before a court for resolution under the Constitution and federal law. Mr. Osete’s senior role reflects experience protecting rights through the legal process and carrying out the rule-of-law responsibilities of federal civil-rights enforcement.^[2][3]

Mr. Osete’s career also reflects a sustained focus on appellate work. His résumé records a successful habeas corpus appeal in the Sixth Circuit, followed by appellate clerkships, service as a Deputy Solicitor General, private appellate practice, and present responsibility for the Civil Rights Division’s Appellate Section. Senator Schmitt, who worked with Mr. Osete while serving as Missouri Attorney General, has publicly described him as dedicated to public service and to the rule of law. Taken together, his record reflects a lawyer repeatedly entrusted with difficult public-law disputes, institutional responsibility, and the protection of constitutional and statutory rights.^[4]

RNLA respectfully submits this recommendation for the Committee’s consideration and urges the Committee to report favorably his nomination. Mr. Osete’s service at the Department of Justice, in particular, reflects substantial responsibility for enforcing federal law, protecting individual rights, and resolving consequential disputes through the courts. Thank you for your consideration.

Lee E. Goodman
RNLA Chair

Jennifer Bukowsky
RNLA Co-Chair

Michael Thielen
RNLA President and Executive Director

Trevor Stanley
RNLA First Vice President