"Abject partisanship": Trump loyalist Bove hit with judicial misconduct complaint; Axios, December 11, 2025

Avery Lotz, Axios ; "Abject partisanship": Trump loyalist Bove hit with judicial misconduct complaint

"Emil Bove, a federal appeals court judge who previously served as President Trump's personal attorney, is accused of an ethics violation for attending the president's rally-style speechTuesday night. 

Why it matters: The complaint from a watchdog group alleges that Bove's presence at the event runs afoul of two clear pillars of judicial ethics: to avoid impropriety and political activity. It could result in disciplinary action.

• Bove's office told Axios he did not have a comment when reached Thursday. The White House directed Axios to a social media post from White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, who told a user questioning Bove's attendance to "Stop ... pearl-clutching."
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Driving the news: Fix the Court, a watchdog and advocacy group, alleged that Bove violated multiple sections of the governing Code of Conduct for U.S. judges in a judicial misconduct complaint filed Wednesday.

• "There is no prohibition, of course, against a federal judge attending an event at which a President is speaking," wrote Gabe Roth, the group's executive director, in the complaint addressed to Chief Judge Michael Chagares. 
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• However, the president's Pennsylvania event — billed as a celebration of his economic wins that turned into a campaign-style speech with attacks on the "radical left" — represented "a far cry from the State of the Union or a state dinner for its abject partisanship," Roth writes.
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• He argued it "should have been obvious to Judge Bove, either at the start of the rally or fairly close to it, that this was a highly charged, highly political event that no federal judge should have been within shouting distance of."
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• "Last night's event in Pennsylvania was barely distinguishable (i.e., only temporally) from a Trump rally in 2020 or 2024, both of which were obvious political activities," Roth wrote.
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The other side: Bove reportedly told a reporter from MS NOW at the event that he attended "just ... as a citizen coming to watch the president speak.""

This May Be the Most Cynical Ploy to Win a Trump Supreme Court Appointment Yet; Slate, December 11, 2025

SHIRIN ALI, Slate ; This May Be the Most Cynical Ploy to Win a Trump Supreme Court Appointment Yet

"Ever since Emil Bove came back into government following Donald Trump’s return to office, he’s found himself mired in controversy. As the deputy attorney general at the start of Trump’s term, Bove was accused of corruptly dismissing a high-profile criminal indictment over the objections of line prosecutors and a U.S. attorney. Around that time, he also allegedly told members of the Justice Department that they should tell the courts “fuck you” in the face of any attempts to stop the president’s unlawful deportations to third-party countries without due process. On Tuesday night, Bove, now a Trump-appointed judge on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, committed a new foul. He attended a Trump rally in Pennsylvania during which the president called Joe Biden a “son of a bitch” and said that Democrats are “bad people” and “sick people.” Within less than 24 hours, a complaint was filed against Bove, accusing him of “abject partisanship” that is unacceptable for a member of the judiciary."

Alito Spoke With Trump Shortly Before Supreme Court Filing; The New York Times, January 8, 2025

Adam Liptak, The New York Times ; Alito Spoke With Trump Shortly Before Supreme Court Filing

"Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. spoke with President-elect Donald J. Trump on Tuesday, not long before Mr. Trump’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court to delay his sentencing following his conviction in New York in a case arising from hush money payments.

Justice Alito said the call was a routine job reference for a former law clerk whom Mr. Trump was considering for a government position.

It was not clear, however, why Mr. Trump would make a call to check references, a task generally left to lower-level aides.

Gabe Roth, the executive director of Fix the Court, an advocacy group that seeks more openness at the Supreme Court, said the call was deeply problematic given the ethics controversies swirling around the court in general and Justice Alito in particular."

Supreme Court Ethics Lapses Aren’t a Partisan Issue; Bloomberg, June 7, 2024

Gabe Roth, Bloomberg; Supreme Court Ethics Lapses Aren’t a Partisan Issue

"Ethics reform at the Supreme Court is not a partisan issue. Nor is it a cynical attempt to shame or bully the court. It’s true that the justices most in the news for ethical lapses — Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito — are staunch conservatives. But liberal justices have had their issues, too."