DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s Republican governor has appointed a West Des Moines lawyer with longtime ties to the state GOP as the newest Iowa Supreme Court justice. Gov. Kim Reynolds named Matthew McDermott on Friday to fill the vacancy left when former Justice David Wiggins, a Democratic appointee, retired last month.

McDermott served as lawyer for the state in a contentious lawsuit filed by a labor union challenging a 2017 Republican-backed law that made sweeping changes to Iowa’s public employee collective bargaining statute. McDermott’s team won the lawsuit and a subsequent appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court, which ruled the law change was constitutional.

McDermott was also a lawyer for the Republican Party of Iowa from 2007–2012.