Consider This from NPR - Is Emil Bove the face of a new MAGA judiciary?

Episode Date: July 21, 2025

President Trump helped reshape the federal courts during his first term in office. And he relied heavily on the Federalist Society in that effort, which helped him zero in on judges with a conservative, originalist interpretation of the constitution.Now the nominations machinery is restarting, and Trump's most controversial judicial nominee is only one step away from the federal bench.His name is Emil Bove. During his first term, Trump appointed scores of originalists to the federal bench– a victory for the conservative legal movement.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This isn't usually how Senate committee votes go. We'll go to Boevey's nomination. The clerk will call the roll. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman, point of personal privilege. Mr. Chairman, according to rule four of the committee, we have the right to continue to debate this nomination. There is a lot going on here, so let's unpack it. You're hearing Democratic Senators Cory Booker and Maisie Hirono arguing with the Republican Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chuck Grassley. While that's going on, the clerk is calling on senators one by one, and Republicans are voting in favor of advancing the nomination

of Justice Department Attorney Amal Bovi to a federal court of appeals. This continues as all of the Democrats walk out in protest. Why are you doing this? This is outrageous. This is a kangaroo court. That's what we have here. This is wrong. As the drama suggests, Democrats are strongly opposed to Boevey's nomination. In just a few months at DOJ, Boevey has been a player in some of the Trump administration's biggest breaks with norms. The pardoning of January 6th rioters, the dropped prosecution of New York Mayor Eric Adams. There were also charges from a whistleblower that Boevey told subordinates they might have to defy court

orders. Democrats wanted the committee to hear from him. Here's ranking member Dick Durbin. He's ready to stand before you, raise his right hand, take an oath, and testify under oath. What more can you ask about credibility than that? Grassley dismissed the report. I've seen a lot of confirmation fights. What we're witnessing has all the hallmarks of a political hit job, time for maximum media splash with minimum subsets. And Republicans voted 12 to 0 to advance the nomination. At Boevi's confirmation hearing, Durbin argued that his objections were not about the nominee's judicial philosophy.

Elections have consequences, so I expect to see conservative judicial nominees coming from this administration. Durbin suggested that President Trump didn't pick Boevey for his legal views at all. President Trump cares little about statutory interpretation and the original meaning of the Constitution. He is looking for loyalty. He is looking for fierce retribution. He is looking for someone who will instill fear in his opponents. It seems he has found such a nominee in Mr. Bovi.

Consider this. During his first term, Trump appointed scores of originalists to the federal bench, a victory for the conservative legal movement. This time around, the AML Bovi nomination signals Trump may be looking for a different sort of judge. From NPR, I'm Juana Summers. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things and other currencies. With WISE, you can send, spend, or receive money across borders, all at a fair exchange rate. No markups or hidden fees.

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Not just what they mean, but what they mean for you all in under 30 minutes. Listen to the weekly roundup every Friday on the NPR Politics Podcast. It's Consider This from NPR. President Trump helped reshape the federal courts during his first term in office, and he relied heavily on the Federalist Society in that effort, which helped him zero in on judges with a conservative, originalist interpretation of the Constitution. Now the nomination's machinery is restarting, and Trump's most controversial judicial nominee is only one step away from the federal bench. I'm joined by NPR's Carrie Johnson for a look at what Amel Bovi could tell us about Trump's

approach to judges in his second term. Carrie, welcome. Hi, Wana. So Carrie, start if you can by just telling us who Amel Bovi is and why his nomination is so controversial. Well, he's got some pretty strong credentials. He graduated from Georgetown Law School, did a couple of clerkships with conservative federal judges, and then got a job in what might be the most prestigious U.S. Attorney's office in the entire country in Manhattan. And of course, he went on to defend Donald Trump in his various criminal cases. The White House Communications Director says Amal Bovi is supremely qualified and a man of integrity.

He says there's nobody more capable for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. And at his confirmation hearing, Bovi told senators he's been misunderstood. I am not anybody's henchman. I'm not an enforcer. I'm a lawyer from a small town who never expected to be in an arena like this. But Bovi also ran into some complaints from colleagues and defense lawyers. Right, and if I understand, Carrie, he's also had an outsized role in his brief time at the Department of Justice, is that right?

He's the right-hand man to the Deputy Attorney General, which basically means all the day-to-day management of the Justice Department, both the big cases and policies, all of that ends up on his desk and there's been a lot going on this year. From firing prosecutors who worked on those January 6 cases to walking away from the corruption case against New York City's Mayor Eric Adams. A federal judge said the decision to drop that case smacked of a bargain where DOJ would move to dismiss the case and Mayor Adams would help advance Trump's aggressive deportation agenda. 900 former Justice Department lawyers have urged the Senate to vote no on Amal Bovi. I spoke with Stacey Young, who spent 18 years inside the DOJ. She now runs a group that connects people there with legal and ethics

advice. By voting to confirm Amel Bovi to a lifetime appointment, they would be doing more than just placing someone problematic on the bench. They would be giving their stamp of approval on everything that's happened at DOJ in the last six months. And that is simply unacceptable. DOJ in the last six months. And that is simply unacceptable. Cari, we know that President Trump appointed a whole lot of judges during his first term. So how does Boevi compare? During Trump's first term, Trump confirmed more than 200 judges with help from Senator Mitch McConnell, largely relying on a list the Federalist Society helped create. But Boevi's not a member of the Federalist Society. He's loyal to Trump and close to people in the White House, though.

That's what worries Greg Nunziata, who helped advance judicial nominees as a Republican Senate aide. He now works as executive director at Society for the Rule of Law. I think there are reasons all Americans should be concerned about judges coming to the bench with political agendas and outcome-motivated orientation to judging. That should concern everybody. It's especially notable that President Trump is breaking with the Federalist Society here

because that group has been just extremely successful at stacking the federal bench with very conservative judges, right? That success helped culminate in a six-to-three conservative supermajority on today's Supreme Court. That effort began over a generation ago in law schools and it continued all the way through Donald Trump's first Charmin office where nominees with conservative track records were

closely vetted, their writings were tracked. The idea was to ensure these very conservative lawyers would stay conservative and avoid the kind of drift that say former Justice David Souter and former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor may have represented. Right, okay, well, I mean, given the fact that the Federalist Society has been so successful, tell us why Trump soured on it.

I think there's a simple reason. There are hundreds of cases that have been filed against the Trump administration this year, challenging his policies, his immigration agenda, the efforts to remake the federal government. And the president has really been frustrated with lower court judges who ruled against him, judges that were appointed by both Democratic

and Republican presidents. Trump went so far as to attack Leonard Leo, the longtime Federalist Society official, in a social media post this year as he was losing in the lower courts. Trump called him a sleazebag. We'll just point out here that judges are supposed to be independent of the president who appointed them.

They're not political actors. Carrie Johnson, how do you expect this to shape the judiciary given the fact that these are lifetime appointments? The Senate has already confirmed Trump's first federal judge. Several more are in the pipeline. There are fewer judicial vacancies now than in Trump's first federal judge, several more are in the pipeline. There are fewer judicial vacancies now than in Trump's first go-round in the White House. And there's also some evidence judges may be delaying their retirement so their replacements are not picked by Trump.

I mean, there are hundreds of federal judges. Bovi is just one person. So is his confirmation really likely to make a difference in how Trump's policies fair in court? You know, this is a fair point. I've been talking with experts. They tell me appeals court judges sit on panels of three. So any one judge is not going to tip the balance of power. But if and when the president gets a vacancy on the Supreme Court, that nominee could have a lot more influence. It's not clear. Emil Bovi would be at the top of Trump's list. but people

in the legal community tell me they think it's a possibility. Trump has been winning a lot this year in the Supreme Court and that's ultimately where this matters. And PR's Carrie Johnson, thank you. My pleasure. This episode was produced by Conor Donovan. It was edited by Anna Yukhanov and Courtney Doarning. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigan. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Juana Sommers. Federal funding for public media has been eliminated. That means decades of bipartisan support for public radio and television is ending. To be clear, NPR and the following message come from the Lemelson Foundation, working to harness the power of invention and innovation to accelerate climate action and improve lives around the world. Learn more at lemelson.org