[2] She then clerked for two years for Michigan Supreme Court Justice Charles Levin, whom she would later marry and, in November 2006, divorce.

On January 7, 1997, President Bill Clinton nominated White to a vacancy on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit that was vacated by Judge Damon Keith, who assumed senior status on May 1, 1995.

When Clinton later nominated Kathleen McCree Lewis in 1999 to a second Michigan vacancy on the Sixth Circuit, Abraham did not allow her to be processed in committee either.

However, Michigan's two Democratic senators, Carl Levin, who was the cousin of White's husband at the time, and Debbie Stabenow, who had defeated Abraham in the 2000 election, consistently tried to block all of Bush's circuit court nominees from Michigan, citing the fact that White and Lewis, the latter of whom eventually died in October 2007, had never received up-or-down votes from the Senate during Clinton's presidency.

But as part of the Gang of 14 deal in May 2005, they finally allowed the confirmation of stalled Bush nominees David McKeague, Richard A. Griffin and Susan Bieke Neilson.

Bush quickly named Raymond Kethledge and United States Attorney Stephen Murphy III to fill the positions.

However, after the Democrats regained control of the Senate in November 2006, Levin and Stabenow once again balked at confirming any further Bush nominees from Michigan to the Sixth Circuit.

On April 15, 2008, as part of a deal with Levin and Stabenow, Bush reluctantly renominated White to the Sixth Circuit, more than eleven years after she was first nominated by Clinton.