Lawyer who urged administration to ignore court orders given lifetime appointment to federal judiciary

Welcome the cross of Roy Cohn and Eddie Munster to the Article III courts:

Emil Bove, President Donald Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, has been confirmed to a lifetime seat on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals — the culmination of a tumultuous campaign from his detractors that ultimately fractured his support among the Senate GOP.

The Senate voted 50-49 to confirm Bove, with Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska defecting from the rest of their party to join all Democrats in opposing.

Bove was plagued by reports of whistleblowers alleging that he recommended the administration ignore court orders that would disrupt Trump’s aggressive immigration agenda. His nomination became a flashpoint battle for Democrats, who argued the current principal associate deputy attorney general had made clear he valued fealty to the president over the law and was therefore unfit for the federal bench.

“Look at his record: Emil Bove has shown time and time again his disrespect for the very office he seeks to hold,” said Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), pointing to the whistleblower’s allegations, during a recent speech on the Senate floor. “I don’t know of another case I have seen in my 14 years in the Senate where someone so unqualified for the bench is before us.”

Booker was among Bove’s chief antagonists, with New Jersey being among the states from where the newly-confirmed judge would hear appeals — along with Delaware, Pennsylvania and the Virgin Islands.

Meanwhile, Pam Bond is filing a complaint against a judge for making anodyne comments in private:

I wanted to put out a quick issue today to cover the misconduct complaint that the Department of Justice has filed against D.C. district court Chief Judge Jeb Boasberg—based on comments that Boasberg apparently made at a March meeting of the Judicial Conference of the United States. I’ll say more about the background below, but the gravamen of the complaint is that Boasberg’s comments reflect bias against the Trump administration and should subject him to censure by the Judicial Council of the D.C. Circuit.

The complaint is almost laughably preposterous. First, Boasberg’s comments weren’t public. Second, his comments were apparently nothing more than relaying (to the Chief Justice) concerns that had been raised by his colleagues on the federal bench in D.C. Third, it turns out that those concerns were … well-taken. And fourth, even if none of the first three things were true (and they all are), the comments don’t come anywhere close to crossing the line of what judges can and can’t say in public with respect to systemic issues facing the federal courts. Whether D.C. Circuit Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan gives the complaint the back of his hand or, because it’s coming from DOJ, takes it at least somewhat seriously (e.g., by referring it to the D.C. Circuit Judicial Council for full consideration), there’s just no question that at the end of the day, this complaint is going to be dismissed.

But the bigger issue is that the Department of Justice (and the Attorney General, specifically) filed this nonsense (and then tweeted about it) in the first place. I very much doubt that Judge Boasberg is the kind of jurist who will be at all intimidated or in any way cowed by such a maneuver. But there are two other audiences for this charade: The first is other federal judges, who may be less willing to speak out or to raise concerns about the Justice Department’s behavior going forward lest they, too, find themselves the subject of a misconduct complaint. And the second is the current administration’s supporters, for whom the complaint can be pointed to as yet further evidence that the lower federal courts are out to get President Trump (since no one will still be paying attention when—not if—it gets rejected). Yet again, the executive branch is actively seeking to discredit the federal judiciary. And far too many people who ought to be speaking out against this nonsense will just quietly tsk at the Department of Justice and shake their head.

If you know Wilhoit’s Law you need most of what you need to know about Trump’s relationship to all legal affairs.