Emil Bove, Who Urged Trump to Defy Court Orders, Now Gets to Issue Them Forever

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The GOP-majority Senate confirmed Emil Bove to a lifetime federal judgeship Tuesday, proving that the fastest path to the bench is to declare the bench irrelevant—just how Trump likes it.

Bove, infamous for telling Trump’s team to ignore court rulings blocking mass deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, will now spend the rest of his career writing rulings he hopes nobody reads. “Finally,” Bove said after the vote, “a job where I can ignore myself.”

Republicans praised Bove’s “innovative approach to law,” calling him a “trailblazer in the field of judicial disregard.” Senate Democrats, meanwhile, described the appointment as “a dark day,” though admitted they’ve lost track of how many dark days we’re at now.

The 50–49 confirmation came despite a whistleblower recording of Bove literally saying courts should be defied. Asked about this apparent contradiction, one GOP Senator shrugged: “If we ignored every Trump nominee who said to ignore the law, we’d have no judges left.”

Bove will hear cases in Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania—or at least pretend to, before deciding which ones deserve the privilege of being ignored.