He worked as a public defender in St. Louis and an attorney in various other government offices and was elected as a Democratic member of the Missouri House of Representatives, where he served for six years.

White's nomination passed the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, but ran into resistance from then-Senator John Ashcroft in 1999.

[3] Carnahan and other Democrats criticized Republican opposition to the nomination, and it quickly became embroiled with racial overtones and an issue in the United States Senate election in Missouri the following year.

[5] Ashcroft's opposition to White hurt him both in the 2000 Senate election, which he narrowly lost for a variety of reasons, and during his confirmation hearings when he was appointed United States Attorney General in 2001.

[8] On July 14, 2014, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed a motion to invoke cloture on the nomination.