Latest news with #3rdCircuit
Time of India
30-07-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Trump's judge pick: US President's ex-defence lawyer approved for court of appeal; whistleblower claims denied
Emil Bove, who defended Donald Trump in three out of four criminal cases after the US president's first term, has been confirmed by the US Senate for a lifetime seat on a federal appeals court. In one of the narrowest votes of recent times, the Senate approved Bove's appointment to the US Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit by 50 votes to 49 on Tuesday evening. Every Democrat opposed the nomination, joined by two Republican senators, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, according to BBC. Bove, 44, has been described as Trump's most divisive judicial nominee to date. During confirmation hearings, he pushed back against criticism, saying he was not Trump's 'henchman', and denied whistleblower accusations that he had urged staff to ignore legal limits or misled members of the Senate. Since Trump returned to office in January, Bove has been working as principal associate deputy attorney general at the US Department of Justice. His time in that role has attracted fresh scrutiny, with Democrats accusing him of overseeing widespread dismissals of prosecutors viewed as insufficiently loyal to the president. Two whistleblowers claimed Bove told his team that court rulings blocking Trump's deportation policies might need to be disregarded. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Elegant New Scooters For Seniors In 2024: The Prices May Surprise You Mobility Scooter | Search Ads Learn More Undo A third alleged he had not been truthful when speaking to senators about his involvement in dropping corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams. Democrats have linked that case to a political deal, suggesting Adams agreed to support Trump's immigration agenda in return for the case being dropped. Bove has denied all wrongdoing, BBC reported. Despite the controversy, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, chair of the judiciary committee, backed the nomination. 'He has a strong legal background and has served his country honourably. I believe he will be diligent, capable and a fair jurist,' he said before the vote. But Democrats were unconvinced. 'Mr Bove's primary qualification appears to be his blind loyalty to this president,' said Senator Dick Durbin, the committee's top Democrat. More than 900 former employees of the Justice Department signed an open letter urging the Senate to reject the nomination. A separate letter from over 75 retired state and federal judges described the move as 'deeply inappropriate', arguing that no president should appoint their own criminal defence lawyer to the judiciary. Bove's confirmation marks yet another Trump legal ally elevated to a powerful role. Alina Habba, who also defended Trump, now serves as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey. Todd Blanche, another member of Trump's legal team, has been named deputy attorney general. Bove will now join the bench of the 3rd Circuit, which handles cases from Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
BBC News
30-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Emil Bove: Trump's ex-lawyer confirmed as appeals court judge
The US Senate has voted to confirm President Donald Trump's former defence lawyer Emil Bove to a lifetime appointment as a judge on a federal appeals court. Democrats all opposed the move, with two Republicans joining them to vote against Bove by a vote of 50-49 on Tuesday is considered Trump's most contentious judicial pick to date, having defended him in three of the four criminal trials he faced after finishing his first term in office in 2020. During his confirmation hearings, Bove, 44, denied he was Trump's "henchman". He has also denied whistleblowers' claims that he had told staff to flout the law and misled senators. Bove will serve on the US Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, which oversees cases from Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania."He has a strong legal background and has served his country honourably. I believe he will be diligent, capable and a fair jurist," the Republican chairman of the judiciary committee, Chuck Grassley, said ahead of the vote. Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, and Susan Collins, of Maine, were the two Republican senators who sided with Democrats to oppose Bove's Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the judiciary committee, said in a statement: "Mr Bove's primary qualification appears to be his blind loyalty to this president." Since Trump returned to office in January, Bove has been serving as principal associate deputy attorney general at the US Department of accuse Bove of overseeing mass firings of prosecutors who were seen as being insufficiently loyal to whistleblowers had accused Bove of telling subordinates that court orders thwarting Trump's deportation efforts might have to be ignored.A third whistleblower alleged Bove had misled senators when discussing his role in the dismissal of corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams. Democrats say the charges were dropped after Adams agreed to co-operate on Trump's immigration enforcement goals in the city. Bove denied any than 900 former justice department employees signed an open letter, calling for Bove's name to be withdrawn.A group of more than 75 retired state and federal judges also wrote to the said it was "deeply inappropriate" for a president to nominate his own criminal defence attorney for a federal has selected several lawyers who were part of his legal defence team to serve in government addition to Bove, Alina Habba was chosen to be New Jersey's top federal prosecutor, and Todd Blanche is now serving as the deputy attorney general.
Reuters
25-07-2025
- Health
- Reuters
Religious freedom laws apply in drug injection site case, court says
CHICAGO, July 24 (Reuters) - An organization doesn't have to be founded with a religious purpose to claim protection under the country's laws governing the free exercise of religion, a U.S. appeals court said on Thursday in a ruling that applies the protections to nearly any group claiming to be practicing religion. A unanimous three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the decision in a dispute involving a Philadelphia non-profit that has sought to open a supervised drug-injection site in the city. The court gave Safehouse another chance to argue that it has a religious right to do its work after reversing a lower judge's ruling holding that Safehouse, which has said its work is informed by Judeo-Christian beliefs about the need to preserve life and care for the sick, is not protected by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the free exercise clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Safehouse is fighting a long-running U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit seeking to bar it from opening the injection site. The 3rd Circuit panel sent the case back to the district court, directing it to reconsider Safehouse's claims after finding that it does qualify for the protection. Representatives for the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ronda Goldfein, an attorney for Safehouse, called the decision "an important milestone for all community-based organizations that save lives by evidence-based, compassionate harm-reduction strategies." The fight between Safehouse and the federal government began in 2019, during Republican President Donald Trump's first administration. At the time, Safehouse was poised to open what would have been the first such safe-injection site in the country, where drug users under supervision by medically trained professionals could obtain clean syringes and inject themselves with heroin, fentanyl or other drugs. New York City instead in 2021 became the location of the first-safe injection sites, and the Justice Department has not pursued an action to close them. Safehouse has said it will open when it has legal permission. The Justice Department argued Safehouse's plans would violate the Controlled Substances Act by maintaining a place that would facilitate illegal drug use. U.S. District Judge Gerald McHugh rejected that argument in 2020, but the 3rd Circuit reversed it a year later, saying that while the U.S. opioid epidemic "may call for innovative solutions, local innovations may not break federal law." The case came back to the 3rd Circuit after McHugh dismissed Safehouse's claims that the threat of prosecution by the DOJ for violating federal drug laws was unconstitutionally chilling its ability to exercise its religious rights. McHugh said Safehouse's articles of incorporation and tax filings said nothing about any religious activity, and while its website mentioned a religious motivation, it did not describe any apparent religious practices or behavior in its activities. But whether Safehouse is a religious entity isn't the right question, the panel said. Under the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark religious rights ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, laws protecting the free expression of religion can apply to any corporations that claim to exercise religion, the court said. The case is U.S. v. Safehouse, case number 24-2027 in the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. For Safehouse: Ronda Goldfein and Adrian Lowe of the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, Ilana Eisenstein and Ben Fabens-Lassen of DLA Piper, Peter Goldberger of the Law Office of Peter Goldberger and Seth Kreimer of the University of Pennsylvania School of Law For the U.S.: Sarah Carroll and Lowell Sturgill, Jr. of the U.S. Department of Justice
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Democrats scramble to torpedo controversial Trump judicial nominee
Senate Judiciary Democrats are scrambling to make their case as the panel weighs the controversial judicial nomination of a Trump official accused of proposing the Justice Department (DOJ) defy court orders. Emil Bove, the principal deputy attorney general, has been nominated for a lifetime appointment to a bench of the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. Democrats made a last-ditch effort Tuesday to call a hearing with the whistleblower who said he heard Bove suggest the Trump administration should consider ignoring potential court rulings on their plans to send migrants to foreign prisons, with Bove saying they may tell the courts, 'F‑‑‑ you.' But Bove looks poised to proceed, as the one Senate Judiciary Republican who has opposed the nominee, Sen. Thom Tillis (N.C.) has signaled he would back his confirmation, which would bring a vote before the full Senate. Bove is expected to have the votes to win confirmation on the Senate floor, where Republicans have a 53-47 seat majority. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said the committee must hear from the whistleblower behind the accusations: Erez Reuveni, who was fired after a disclosure he made in a related case, telling a judge that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported in error. 'I don't think we should move forward with this vote until we've given the whistleblower an opportunity under oath before the committee to tell us what happened, what we have here. Mr. Bove was in a position where he was encouraging members of the Department of Justice to mislead the judge on the case. That is just unacceptable, unprofessional conduct,' Durbin said Tuesday on CNN referencing the planned Thursday vote. 'This gentleman is prepared to go under oath and to speak to the committee about what he saw and what Mr. Bove did. We should get that done before there's any vote in the committee on his nomination.' Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), however, says the vote will go forward as planned. Bove, previously a member of Trump's personal criminal defense team, currently serves in the No. 3 spot in the DOJ. Should his nomination advance Thursday, he would be launched to a sphere of the judiciary from which Supreme Court justices are often chosen. Numerous groups have also objected to Bove's nomination. Seventy-five formal federal judges signed on to a letter opposing his nomination, calling his dismissal of prosecutors, involvement in killing the bribery prosecution of New York Mayor Eric Adams (D), and nods to defying court orders 'disqualifying.' Last week, the committee released substantial documentation from Reuveni showing other DOJ employees present for a March 14 meeting referencing the expletive, as well as floating the directive to defy the courts as President Trump pushed ahead with plans to ignite the Alien Enemies Act and fly some 200 Venezuelan men to a Salvadoran prison. According to a complaint on file with the inspector general, Bove 'made a remark concerning the possibility that a court order would enjoin those removals before they could be effectuated. Bove stated thatthe DOJ would need to consider telling the courts 'f‑‑‑ you' and ignore any such court order. Mr. Reuveni perceived that others in the room looked stunned, and he observed awkward, nervous glances among people in the room.' 'Mr. Reuveni was in disbelief, because, on the contrary, the Department of Justice consistently advises its clients of their obligation to follow court orders, not to ignore them. Mr. Reuveni knew that it was absurd and unlawful to do otherwise,' the whistleblower relayed in his disclosure. The documents released by Durbin provide greater details about an episode that prompted the judge overseeing a challenge to the flights to conclude there was probable cause for criminal contempt, finding Trump administration willfully defied his order to halt or turn around the planes of migrants. In an exchange with colleagues, Reuveni can be seen discussing Bove's remarks with coworkers, saying they were reaching 'a decision point on f‑‑‑ you.' Bove said he couldn't recall whether he used the expletive but sidestepped questions about whether he ordered defiance of the courts. 'I've certainly said things encouraging litigators at the department to fight hard for valid positions that we have to take,' Bove said at his confirmation hearing. 'I certainly conveyed the importance of the upcoming operation,' he added about the Alien Enemies Act flights. Democrats have grilled Bove about his stance on the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, as the DOJ official was involved with dismissing prosecutors who worked on the cases of rioters and also demanded a list of FBI personnel who helped investigate the cases. They had hoped Tillis might side with them, given his statement in a recent CNN interview after announcing his retirement that those who 'excused' Jan. 6 would not get his backing. Bove, in written questions for the record, said he could not recall where he was as rioters stormed the Capitol but otherwise said he does not see his skepticism of Jan. 6 prosecutions as being at odds with his stance of opposing violence against law enforcement. 'As a former prosecutor with almost a decade of experience enforcing criminal laws, I condemn all forms of illegal activity. That is especially true with respect to acts of violence against law enforcement,' Bove wrote in documents obtained by The Hill. 'At the same time, based on a variety of professional experiences, I find overreach and heavy-handed tactics by prosecutors and law enforcement to be equally unacceptable.' Tillis previously opposed the nomination of another Justice Department nominee, Ed Martin, who had said Jan. 6 rioters were unfairly prosecuted. 'It was just disqualifying. I mean — he literally was excusing some of the behavior of people who entered the building,' Tillis said of Martin. 'The president should know, if there is anyone coming up for a nomination through any committee of my jurisdiction that excused January the 6th, that they're not going to get confirmed in my remaining tenure in the U.S. Senate.' But speaking with The Hill on Tuesday, Tillis reiterated his plans to follow the staff recommendation on the Bove nomination. 'Right now, the staff has a yes recommendation. I don't see any reason to oppose them,' he said. 'Anybody who excuses that behavior has a problem with me,' Tillis said about Jan. 6, but said he hadn't seen that from Bove. 'But I haven't seen that yet, and Dick Durbin didn't add any to the conversation last week,' Tillis added. For his part, Grassley also pushed back on Reuveni's allegations, saying the documents released by Durbin didn't directly show wrongdoing by Bove. 'I do not believe that they substantiate any misconduct by Mr. Bove,' Grassley wrote in a Tuesday letter to Durbin. 'Almost none of the additional documents you published include, reference, or even cite Mr. Bove. Most of the communications merely reflect Administration attorneys internally debating or discussing litigation strategy and the scope of court orders. Debate about the scope of court orders is fundamentally inconsistent with an intention to ignore them.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
900 DOJ attorneys urge Senate to reject Bove nomination
More than 900 former Justice Department attorneys are urging the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject the nomination of Emil Bove for a lifetime judicial appointment. Bove, who previously served on President Trump's criminal defense team, is now in the No. 3 role at the Department of Justice (DOJ) and has been nominated for a judgeship on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. The extraordinary outpouring came from attorneys from the Kennedy administration to the current Trump administration who pinpointed Bove as a key figure behind numerous firings and policy shifts, calling him a 'leader in this assault' on the Justice Department. 'Emil Bove has been an architect and enforcer of many of the attacks on DOJ and its employees,' said Stacey Young, executive director and founder of Justice Connection, which organized the letter. 'His nomination to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals sent shockwaves across DOJ's workforce, and should alarm all Americans concerned about the Department's future and the survival of the rule of law.' The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to consider Bove's nomination Thursday, as well as that of Fox News host Jeanine Pirro to serve as a U.S. attorney. The letter runs through a string of recent controversies in which Bove has played a role. He was central in pushing the dismissal of the bribery charges brought against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, prompting a wave of resignations from members of the department's Public Integrity Section. He was behind the terminations of prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6, 2021, cases and a request to turn over a list of FBI agents who investigated riot cases. It also focuses on recent allegations from a DOJ whistleblower who said Bove told top department officials they may need to consider saying 'f‑‑‑ you' to judges who might block the administration's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to send migrants to a Salvadoran prison. Bove has said he couldn't recall whether he used the expletive, but he told lawmakers during his confirmation hearing that he 'certainly conveyed the importance of the upcoming operation.' 'Each one of the undersigned would testify, under oath, that we have never — and would never — tell a Justice Department attorney to consider defying a court order. Moreover, the Justice Department's later defiance of judicial mandates in the cases where Mr. Bove previewed doing so further suggests that disregarding court orders was Mr. Bove's intent all along,' the letter states. Bove's nomination looks poised to proceed, as Sen. Thom Tillis (N.C.), the only Republican on the panel to previously oppose a Trump nominee, has said he would follow the staff recommendation. 'We ask that before the Judiciary Committee votes on this nomination, you rigorously examine the actions Mr. Bove has taken at DOJ and the effects they've had on the Department's integrity, employees, and mission-critical work,' the attorneys wrote. 'It is intolerable to us that anyone who disgraces the Justice Department would be promoted to one of the highest courts in the land, as it should be intolerable to anyone committed to maintaining our ordered system of justice.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
