If Senate Republicans Confirm Emil Bove, They Will Confirm Anyone - Balls and Strikes

[In It to Win It]

Balls and Strikes

Vacancies

The judicial vacancy count remains unchanged since the last report: 61 total vacancies (49 current and 12 future). In fact, there hasn’t been a new vacancy announced since mid-April, which is well behind the pace of retirements in the early months of prior presidencies.

Given that Trump has spent his first few months in office attacking the judges he appointed in his first term and nominating MAGA reactionaries to the vacancies that already exist, the likeliest explanation for the dearth of retirements is that even conservative federal judges don’t trust Trump to pick a qualified (traditional, Federalist Society-type) replacement. I’m not the only one who thinks so, either: According to amateur true crime real estate agent Ed Whelan, Trump’s “bizarre attack” on his first-term appointees hasn’t “inspired confidence” among sitting conservative judges. Whelan even says that one “very conservative judge” explicitly cited that reason (in private, to Whelan) for staying on the bench.

Nominees

Trump’s choice of Emil Bove for a Third Circuit vacancy is not going to assuage those concerns. Bove lacks culture war experience: He has never fought against marriage equality, or defended a draconian abortion ban, or pleaded for racist voter ID requirements. With virtually no record of his legal views, there can be only one basis for his selection, and it’s the same reason Bove is the most dangerous pick yet: his unyielding personal loyalty to Donald Trump.

Bove’s early legal career looks like that of a typical judicial nominee: Clerkships with federal judges; a short stint at a white-shoe law firm; a longer one at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. But Bove’s aggressive and vindictive personality eventually derailed it: According to The New York Times, Bove’s time at the U.S. Attorney’s office was marred by repeated complaints—from within and without—about his unprofessional behavior. After a demotion, he left the office and eventually partnered with Todd Blanche as part of Trump’s criminal defense team, where Trump and Bove seemed to have bonded over their shared perpetual victimhood complex.