Updated at 9:15 p.m. with reaction from Justice Don Willett.

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump on Thursday picked two conservative Texas lawyers for seats on a powerful appeals court -- Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett and former Texas Solicitor General James Ho.

Willett is a colorful social media maven who was on Trump’s list of 11 potential Supreme Court picks. Ho, a Dallas attorney, would be the first Asian-American on the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz recommended them to Trump.

Both nominees have worked for the state attorney general. And both served in former President George W. Bush's Justice Department.

"These gentlemen will do an outstanding job," Cornyn told Texas reporters.

The nominations come as Trump continues to use one of the most powerful levers held by any president: reshaping the federal judiciary. The Fifth Circuit has lately handled issues ranging from immigration to redistricting, hearing cases from Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Trump announced two other nominations to the 17-judge panel, which has three vacancies and a judge set to retire. Kyle Duncan, another veteran of the Texas attorney general's office, is an appellate lawyer in Washington. He represented Hobby Lobby in its challenge to the Affordable Care Act's contraception mandate. Trump also named Kurt Engelhardt, a federal trial court judge in Louisiana.

Neither of the Texas nominees could be reached Thursday but Willett acknowledged his nomination on Twitter.

"No words. I am honored & humbled by @POTUS's nomination to the 5th Circuit," he said in a tweet, thanking Trump, Cornyn and Cruz.

No words.



I am honored & humbled by @POTUS's nomination to the 5th Circuit.



Thank you, Mr. President—also Senators @JohnCornyn & @TedCruz. pic.twitter.com/499LFNdjbC — Judge Don Willett (@JusticeWillett) September 29, 2017

State leaders lavished praise on the Texans.

Gov. Greg Abbott called them "outstanding." He worked with both when he was Texas attorney general and said he can "attest to their brilliance as lawyers and their unwavering commitment to the rule of law."

State Attorney General Ken Paxton said he's long recommended Willett, Ho and Duncan as Fifth Circuit nominees, noting each was a "key member" of the state's attorney general's office. The men "will faithfully adhere to our country's founding principles embodied in the Constitution," he said in a statement.

Leonard Leo, a top adviser to Trump on judges and executive vice president of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group that drafted the Supreme Court short list Trump unveiled during the campaign, said the nominees "embody President Trump's commitment to picking judges who have a record of excellence and a commitment to a judicial role that is impartial, rather than committed to a particular personal or legal agenda."

Tweeter Laureate

Willett, named the "Tweeter Laureate" by the Texas House in 2015, has nearly 100,000 Twitter followers who track his typically entertaining legal puns. The judge has said he uses social media to reach voters who are under-informed about judicial candidates.

Although he ended up on Trump’s short list for Supreme Court, he had poked fun at the future president.

"Donald Trump haiku," one tweet read. "Who would the Donald Name to #SCOTUS? The mind reels. weeps--can't finish tweet."

Willett's story goes deeper than his Twitter persona. He grew up in Talty, a small town east of Dallas, the adopted son of a couple who hadn't graduated high school. His father died when he was six, and his mother made ends meet by waiting tables at a truck stop.

He graduated from Baylor University and Duke University’s law school. He then worked for Bush, eventually serving as a deputy assistant attorney general.

Willett returned to Texas to work in the state attorney general’s office under Abbott. There, he defended the Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of the state capitol.

Willett "has developed an outstanding reputation as a very fine jurist," Cornyn said.

The popular Texas justice isn't uniformly lauded. His strict adherence to the letter of the law and the Constitution, without regard to historical setting and interpretation, has drawn criticism.

He has been dinged, in particular, by school groups for the controversial opinion he wrote in Texas' latest school finance challenge. The ruling detailed deep problems with the state's education funding, but found that the system still met minimum constitutional standards.

Conservative lawmakers, though, praised the decision -- the first major court victory for the state in decades of school finance legal wrangling -- as a refusal to meddle in legislative affairs.

He’s known for biting wit, as in a concurring opinion in a case striking down a Texas requirement for eyebrow threaders to undergo 750 hours of training in order to obtain cosmetology licenses before they could legally work.

“Threaders with no license are less menacing than government with unlimited license,” he wrote.

Decisions like that render Willett unfit for the bench, said Ware Wendell, head of the non-partisan citizen advocacy organization Texas Watch.

"Don Willett has proven himself to be an activist judge whose radical view of the world privileges profit over public safety," he said in a statement. "His writing demonstrates a desire to shred protections under a misinterpretation of 'liberty' that is distorted beyond all recognition."

Cornyn, who is a former Texas Supreme Court Justice, argued it's Willett and Ho's ability to set aside their personal views that makes them ideal for the bench.

"What we really want are judges who demonstrate their fidelity to the law and their fidelity to their oath of office," he said.

Scott Keller, the state’s current solicitor general, called Ho “one of the preeminent litigators in Texas for a number of years... a consummate professional who will be a fantastic jurist.”

Willett, he said, is always prepared with insightful questions at oral arguments. “The state’s loss is the country’s gain, for both of them,” he said.

Making history

Ho, who was born in Taiwan and raised in California, would be the 10th Asian American federal appellate judge in history.

After Stanford University and law school at the University of Chicago, Ho clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas, one of the most conservative justices on the Supreme Court. He later served as Cornyn’s chief counsel in the Senate and -- a Texan by marriage -- succeeded Cruz as solicitor general.

James Ho is a partner with the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. (Photo courtesy of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher)

“He argued some of this country's toughest cases before its highest courts. I am confident that he will be a stellar jurist and an intellectual force on the court,” Cruz said.

As Texas’ top appeals lawyer, Ho presented over 45 oral arguments in federal and state courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, according to his bio.

He’s now a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, where Ron Kirk, the former Dallas mayor and trade ambassador in the Obama administration, works out of a neighboring office. Kirk lauded Ho's temperament, integrity and intellect.

"He's a very good choice, notwithstanding our differences of political philosophy," Kirk said. "He is almost wickedly smart and someone with a real true fidelity to the principle of the rule of law."

Colleagues have long viewed him as someone who "just has it in his DNA to be a judge," Kirk said. "This will be a tremendous loss for us. Jim is regarded... as one of the more brilliant appellate lawyers in the U.S."

Brandi Grissom and Lauren McGaughy in Austin and Caroline Kelly in Washington contributed to this report.