Dem
47
GOP
53
OK. It is really Leonard Leo, but close enough. Donald Trump is belatedly discovering that outsiders who recommend judges to him generally pick conservatives who believe in the rule of law. That's not what he wants. He wants judges who will rule in his favor, the law be damned. He finds guardrails, like having to obey the law, a nuisance and wants judges who will ignore the law when he finds the law inconvenient. In particular, one of the judges on the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade that gave a unanimous ruling that he has no authority to levy tariffs, Timothy Reif, was his own appointee. The other two were Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama appointees, respectively. Trump feels that Reif "owes him," and Reif didn't deliver. Neither did the conservative Reagan appointee, Jane Restani.
Trump expressed his discontent by lashing out at former long-time leader of the Federalist Society Leo. He called Leo, a devout Catholic, a "sleazebag" who "probably hates America." Leo had the grace not to fire back. He said: "I'm very grateful for President Trump transforming the Federal Courts, and it was a privilege being involved." With Trump, loyalty is a one-way street.
Leo is very conservative, and so is certainly not everyone's cup of tea, but saying he hates America is nonsense. He picked three Supreme Court justices during Trump v1.0 that conservatives have loved. John Yoo, a conservative law professor at Berkeley who served in George W. Bush's administration and who wrote many far-right memos on executive power, wiretapping, and torture, said Trump's attacks on Leo are "outrageous." Yoo believes that the purpose of the conservative legal movement is to get presidents to stop treating judicial appointments as patronage and start picking them to advance movement goals (see: Miers, Harriet).
On the other hand, lapdog AG Pam Bondi agreed with Trump and said that future judicial nominees would not be
required to fill out questionnaires or sit for interviews with the American Bar Association. This will make it easier
for Trump to put nominees before the Senate whose only defining characteristic is total loyalty to Trump, even if they
are otherwise completely unqualified to be a judge. As a starter, Trump just nominated his personal lawyer, Emil Bove
III, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Bove has no judicial experience, even though circuit judges
typically have experience as federal district judges or state judges. Bove recently forced out an interim U.S. attorney
(Danielle Sassoon), who clerked for Antonin Scalia but was unwilling to make a corrupt bargain to pressure indicted NYC
Mayor Eric Adams to help deport immigrants or face prison. If Bove is confirmed to the circuit court, he will likely be
at the top of Trump's appointee list should either Clarence Thomas or Samuel Alito retire this year or next. However,
both Thomas and Alito are close to Leo and greatly respect him. They could potentially factor that in when deciding when
to retire. They might be willing to wait and hope for a possible President Vance in 2029. (V)