President Donald Trump has nominated R. Alexander Acosta to be Secretary of Labor. His nomination comes one day after Andrew Puzder, Trump’s first pick to lead the Department of Labor, withdrew his nomination.
Acosta, currently the Dean of Florida International University’s law school, is the son of Cuban immigrants. If confirmed, Acosta would be the first Hispanic member of Trump’s Cabinet.
Acosta is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. He clerked for Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. when Alito was a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in Philadelphia. Acosta then went into private practice at the Washington, D.C. law firm Kirkland & Ellis and taught law at the George Mason School of Law.
Acosta has been confirmed by the Senate three times — to become a National Labor Relations Board member, then to become Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and finally when he was nominated to be U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.
He was appointed by President George W. Bush as member of the National Labor Relations Board, and served as a Board member from December 17, 2002, through August 21, 2003. Acosta reportedly authored approximately 125 opinions during his tenure on the Board.
Thereafter, Acosta served as Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division under President George W. Bush until June 2005. He later was appointed U.S. Attorney for Southern District of Florida, where he served until becoming the Dean of FIU Law in 2009.
