WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump’s controversial judicial nominee Emil Bove consulted with a far-right legal group after Trump nominated him to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit ― the same court currently considering at least one case this group is actively involved in.
Buried in a 165-page document full of his written answers to questions from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Bove mentions that after he was nominated, he discussed his judicial philosophy and preparations for his confirmation hearing with Kellie Fiedorek, the senior counsel and government affairs director for Alliance Defending Freedom.
“Subsequent to my nomination, I communicated with Kellie [Fiedorek] to discuss my qualifications for the position, my judicial philosophy, and preparing for my confirmation hearing,” Bove said in his July 2 responses to the committee.
That Bove, who is 44 and nominated to a lifetime federal court seat, is talking with this group at all should raise eyebrows. ADF, which identifies as a conservative Christian legal advocacy group, has been designated an anti-LBGTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. It has supported the recriminalization of sexual acts between consenting LGBTQ adults, defended forced sterilization of transgender people, claimed that LGBTQ people are more likely to engage in pedophilia and, predictably, warned that a so-called “homosexual agenda” will destroy us all.
