Judge Emil Bove is dangerous, but let’s not freak out |
The appointment of Trump apparatchik Emil Bove to the influential Third Circuit Court of Appeals is terrible, deeply compromising the standards of integrity and judicial independence that have been at the core of our constitutional system since 1789.
The judiciary is, as Alexander Hamilton declared it, “the weakest of the three” branches of government. It does not need to be any weaker. But it is not yet the end of the world.
The clear and present danger is that the Bove appointment, perhaps the worst Trump has made, is a chip-shot away from our supremely partisan Supreme Court.
Only one judge has made it from the Third Circuit to the Supreme Court — the hard-right Justice Samuel Alito, appointed by President George W. Bush in 2006. Alito is 75, at the threshold of a reasonable retirement. But beware, with Bove waiting in the wings, the stage is set for Alito to get off the court.
Some of the elements a good judge must possess are experience, intellect, judgment, temperament, integrity, character and fairness.
Bove flunks on all counts. Forget that he has no prior federal judicial experience. This has been true of the greatest of our Supreme Court justices, the venerated Chief Justice John Marshall, and the very worst, Chief Justice Roger Taney, who wrote the infamous Dred Scott opinion denying citizenship to Black people. It is also true of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes and Justice Louis Brandeis.
Fifty senators shamefully caved on Bove, just as they did with the hideous appointments of Pam Bondi, Pete Hegseth, Kristi Noem, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and........