Via Just Security – Classified Information and State Secrets: Why the Senate Must Consider National Security Risks in Judicial Confirmations – “A vote to confirm a judicial nominee is a vote to grant that individual a lifetime security clearance and access to some of the country’s most closely held secrets. This week, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary will vote on whether to advance five judicial nominees for lifetime appointments to the federal courts. Senate confirmation grants a judicial nominee the power not only to interpret the United States’ laws, but also to access sensitive national security information in the cases before them. Far from being ministerial, this function requires senators to make a decision based on their own evaluation of a nominee’s fitness. The Senate’s constitutional advice-and-consent role—though always important in “prevent[ing] the appointment of unfit characters,” “curb[ing] Executive abuses of the appointment power,” and serving as a “check upon a spirit of favoritism in the President”—is “perhaps most consequential in the case of presidential appointments to the federal courts.” Article III judges receive lifetime appointments and, in interpreting the Constitution and resolving the disputes before them, address many of the country’s most significant issues. By virtue of their positions, Article III judges both require and are entitled to access classified information “necessary to resolve” the cases before them. A vote to confirm a judicial nominee in the Senate confirmation process thus is effectively a vote to grant that individual a lifetime security clearance and access to some of the country’s most closely held secrets. Accordingly, the Senate must consider not only whether a nominee possesses the requisite character and fitness to serve as a judge, but also whether they can be trusted to protect U.S. national security…”

See also via NPR – Senate panel approves federal judge nomination for Emil Bove, who defended Trump – Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to advance the nomination of Emil Bove, President Trump’s former personal attorney, to a lifetime federal judgeship. All the Democrats on the panel walked out and did not vote. Bove’s nomination to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals now moves to the full Senate. Bove is tied to some of the most aggressive legal moves by the Justice Department this year. Bove, 44, previously served as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan and defended Trump in a pair of criminal cases filed by the Justice Department. The White House says Bove is an ideal nominee for an open seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Trump has posted on social media that Bove would “do anything else that is necessary to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.” But Bove’s record in and outside the Justice Department has fueled opposition from 900 former DOJ lawyers who identify with both major political parties and a group of more than 75 retired state and federal court judges who fear his intense loyalty to the president would carry over onto the bench…”