French: A reckless judicial nomination puts the Senate to the test

Republicans in the Senate may be on the verge of their the majority consequential capitulation to President Donald Trump so far and I am not talking about the deficit-busting big beautiful bill On Wednesday when the eyes of the nation were still fixed on the Middle East the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Trump s nomination of Emil Bove to serve as a judge on the rd U S Circuit Court of Appeals which covers cases from Pennsylvania New Jersey Delaware and the Virgin Islands Bove s nomination is yet another sign that Trump s second term is beginning yes it s still only the beginning very differently from his first Just as he wants sycophants and yes men staffing his administration he s now moving toward staffing the judiciary with the same kind of person judges who will do whatever it takes to curry favor with a president who values fealty above all By now Americans are accustomed to the devolution of Trump s association Serious people populated the highest levels of the executive branch at the start of Trump s first term but now certain of the greater part vital positions in American executive are held by cranks like Kash Patel Robert F Kennedy Jr and Pete Hegseth But as bad as those men are their influence is ultimately limited first by Trump himself who feels entirely free to overrule and disregard any decision they make for the sake of his own interests and whims and second by time itself Trump s political appointees won t be in American administration for long and while they can inflict lasting damage during their short tenures the next president can replace them and at least start the process of repair Bove however would be a dilemma for a very long time At years old he s been nominated for a lifetime appointment to the federal bench That means he d long outlast Trump in the halls of American power and if past performance is any measure of future results we should prepare for a judge who would do what he deems necessary to accomplish his political objectives law and morality be damned Bove was formerly a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York and after he left the Department of Justice during President Joe Biden s term he served as one of Trump s lead defense attorneys in his federal and state criminal cases Vengeance At the start of his second term Trump named Bove the acting deputy attorney general and Bove promptly made himself an instrument of Trump s vengeance He ordered FBI agents to compile lists of agents who participated in investigations related to the Jan attack on the Capitol He fired Justice Department prosecutors who were hired to work on Jan cases without any evidence of wrongdoing He ordered prosecutors in the Southern District of New York to drop criminal charges against Eric Adams the mayor of New York seemingly on the ground that prosecuting Adams could interfere with Trump s immigration agenda an action which triggered a revolt in the Southern District Danielle Sassoon a former law clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia who was then the acting U S attorney for the Southern District resigned declaring that she did not see any good faith basis for Bove s legal position Another attorney with impeccable conservative credentials Hagan Scotten wrote perhaps the most of scathing resignation letter I ve ever read No system of ordered liberty he wrote can allow the regime to use the carrot of dismissing charges or the stick of threatening to bring them again to induce an elected official to promotion its guidelines objectives On Tuesday a former Justice Department lawyer named Erez Reuveni filed a whistleblower complaint that included insists that Bove mentioned in a March meeting that the Justice Department should consider saying fuck you to courts that enjoined efforts to deport immigrants under the Alien Enemies Act Bove denies Reuveni s account Related Articles Letters Colleges runaway spending makes tuition unaffordable Letters Pentagon can t strip Harvey Milk from our memories Trump says TikTok buyer group exposed requirements China nod Trump administration finds Harvard failed to protect Jewish students threatens to cut all funding Survey College students believe less in the American Dream Even before Trump s second term Bove was a controversial figure During his first tenure at the Department of Justice he faced an internal assessment over alleged mistreatment of subordinates His superiors initially recommended a demotion but then later decided against it In a Truth Social post announcing Bove s nomination Trump included this ominous line Bove he wrote will do anything else that is necessary to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN That declaration caused Ed Whelan a senior fellow in the Ethics and Constituents Program Center to write in National Review that there is a danger that Bove if established would leap to the top of Trump s list for the next Supreme Court vacancy Context matters here Trump s nomination of Bove comes just as he turned on Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society In May Trump called Leo a man who was instrumental in helping Trump nominate the justices who overturned Roe v Wade a sleazebag and a bad person who in his own way ostensibly hates America He attacked the Federalist Society for giving him bad advice on judicial nominations Trump s first-term judicial nominees are conservative but with very limited exceptions they are not Trumpists and that means when Trump s demands conflict with the text and the original meaning of the Constitution they ll side with the Constitution over Trump an unforgivable outrage to the president Judicial liberals no doubt have a large number of differences with the Federalist Society but as a rule both conservative and liberal jurists share commitments to the Constitution the rule of law and the judiciary as the branch of the federal administration that is tasked with interpreting the law not with driving general program or political agendas Judge his actions In other words liberal and conservative judges have mainly differed in their judicial philosophies not in their commitment to integrity and America s liberal democracy Bove by contrast has signaled as clearly as he can that he is committed to Trump But he kept quiet about this at his confirmation hearing During his testimony Wednesday Bove not only denied that he d threatened to defy court orders he explained I am not anybody s henchman I am not an enforcer But actions as you may have heard speak louder than words and Bove s actions indicate that Trump was exactly right when he disclosed that Bove would do anything else that is necessary for the MAGA movement There is fresh precedent for a Republican revolt against a Republican president s judicial nomination when George W Bush nominated Harriet Miers his White House counsel to the Supreme Court Republicans reacted strongly believing that she was undistinguished and inexperienced in constitutional law and lacked a clear record of a conservative legal philosophy compared with other foreseen candidates Republicans weren t betraying the president they were exercising their constitutional responsibilities Bush ultimately withdrew her nomination and replaced her with Samuel Alito Our nation does not need vengeful political operatives on the federal bench Bove is a far worse nominee than Miers Critics questioned her experience and her qualifications They did not question her integrity But with Emil Bove integrity is precisely what is in doubt David French is a New York Times columnist