Emil Bove, who instructed Department of Justice lawyers to tell courts to “fuck off,” is now a federal appeals court judge. A federal judge is a principal officer of the United States of America. Under Article 2, Clause 2 of the Constitution, they must be appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate. Requiring both the President and Congress to agree on an appointment was meant to guarantee that only the most qualified candidates would be given the honor of serving as a federal judge. This is a position that, once obtained, cannot be taken away absent impeachment. Only eight judges have been removed in this manner throughout our nation’s history. As Justice Scalia reportedly once put it, “[s]o long as you stay awake on the bench and don't drool, there's nothing they can do about it."
So what kind of a man have Trump and the Republicans in Congress deemed meritorious enough to serve as a Court of Appeals judge, amongst some of the most distinguished jurists in the country? A man who fired Department of Justice prosecutors for charging people who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, riots; a man who oversaw the embarrassingly corrupt quid pro quo with New York City Mayor Eric Adams; and, clearly, a man with no respect for the rule of law.
To the endless misfortune of our country, and now our federal courts, naked partisanship has rendered inefficient or counterproductive many of the key forces against forces depended upon by the Constitution to preserve the rule of law. The founders did not envision Senators who would act in the interest of their party rather than the interests of the people in their state. As a result, impeachment, even of the most corrupt actors, has become an apparently impossible bar to clear, because that same blind loyalty to party makes getting two-thirds of Congress to agree on anything impossible.
Emil Bove is loyal to Trump, not to the Constitution. He’s capable of blatantly disobeying clear court orders that, in accordance with the basic premises of ordered liberty, sought to preserve minimum due process rights for individuals sent to a torturous prison camp. Such a henchman can do great evil in a role with the discretionary power of a federal circuit court judge.
Our Judiciary, though imperfect, has so far done the most of any branch to enforce compliance with the law in an era of a lawless executive. Mr. Bove transparently lacks the integrity and character to be a federal judge. All he cares about is power. This flaw was not ignored by the Senators who voted him in, but accepted. They, no less than he, bear responsibility for the chaos his presence will wreak on our most steadfast branch. As Justice Brandeis once said, “if the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for the law: it invites every man to become a law unto himself, it invites anarchy.”
In short: Mr. Bove is the worst kind of lawyer. Ambitious enough to elbow his way up the ranks, and cynical enough to treat court orders protecting fundamental rights as if they were mere complicated airflow. He is an embarrassment to a profession that already has the unpleasant reputation of producing too many individuals who see the law merely as a means of obtaining personal power and narcissistic supply. The worst lawyers make the most dangerous judges. Shame.
Liam Harney is a second-year student at Cornell Law School. His column "Objection!" discusses contemporary legal and political issues through a critical lens. He spent last summer working at the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center in New Orleans and will be spending next summer interning at the Legal Aid Society’s Criminal Appeals Division in New York City. He can be reached at ldh55@cornell.edu.
