Lawrence VanDyke

On September 20, 2019, President Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate VanDyke to serve as a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Nevada Senators Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto, both Democrats, announced their opposition in the nomination. The nomination was to the seat being vacated by Judge Jay Bybee, who previously announced his intention to take senior status on December 31, 2019. Six retired justices of the Montana Supreme Court publicly opposed VanDyke’s nomination.

On October 30, 2019, a hearing on VanDyke's nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Most of the two-hour hearing was focused on VanDyke's record on LGBTQ issues. During his confirmation hearing, VanDyke was asked by Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), "Did you say that you wouldn't be fair to members of the LGBTQ community?" VanDyke broke down in tears, denying the accusation: "'I did not say that. I do not believe that. It is a fundamental belief of mine that all people are created in the image of God and they should all be treated with dignity and respect'". Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), questioned VanDyke about an opinion editorial he wrote in 2004 while a student at Harvard Law noting that same-sex marriage may be harmful for children. VanDyke stated that his views had changed since that time. VanDyke said that during a three-hour meeting with the ABA, the ABA evaluator told him that she was in a "hurry" and did not give him the opportunity to fully respond to concerns. The ABA acknowledged that the lead ABA evaluator assigned to VanDyke, Montana attorney Marcia Davenport, contributed $150 to VanDyke's opponent in a 2014 Montana Supreme Court election.

On November 21, 2019, VanDyke's nomination was reported out of committee by a party line 12–10 vote. On December 10, 2019, the full United States Senate invoked cloture on his nomination by a vote of 53–40. On December 11, 2019, his nomination was confirmed by a vote of 51–44. He received his judicial commission on January 2, 2020.

VanDyke later ran unsuccessfully for the Montana Supreme Court. He became Solicitor General of Nevada under Attorney General Adam Laxalt in 2015, where he served until 2019 when he became a deputy Assistant Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division.

From 2012–2013, VanDyke was an Assistant Solicitor General of Texas. He served as Solicitor General of Montana from 2013–2014, when he resigned, citing strain in the workplace. As Solicitor General of Montana, he submitted numerous amicus curiae briefs filed in other states. He recommended signing on to other states' challenges to state and federal gun laws, co-wrote a brief supporting an Arizona law prohibiting abortions after 20 weeks, and recommended that Montana file a brief in a New Mexico case involving a photographer who refused to photograph a lesbian commitment ceremony.

After graduating from law school in 2005, VanDyke served as a law clerk to Judge Janice Rogers Brown of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He then worked in private practice at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. While in private practice, VanDyke performed pro bono legal work for groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Free Market Foundation, and the Alliance Defending Freedom. In 2010, VanDyke filed an amicus brief in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez on behalf of Gays and Lesbians for Individual Liberty in which he argued that a college student group had a First Amendment right to exclude from membership students whose sexual conduct violated the group's stated beliefs.

VanDyke earned his Bachelor of Science, with highest honors, from Montana State University in 1997 and a Master of Arts in 2000. He received his Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.

Lawrence James Christopher VanDyke (born December 12, 1972) is a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and a former Solicitor General of both Nevada and Montana.

VanDyke was born on December 12, 1972 in Midland, Texas. The following year, his family moved to Bozeman, Montana.