The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed Emil Bove, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and a senior Justice Department official, to a lifetime seat on the Philadelphia-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The chamber voted 50–49, with Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joining all Democrats in opposition, while Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee was absent. Bove’s nomination, announced earlier this year, drew unusual resistance after a whistle-blower, former DOJ attorney Erez Reuveni, alleged that Bove told subordinates in March that the department should consider ignoring any court order blocking the administration’s plan to deport suspected gang members under the Alien Enemies Act. Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats demanded additional testimony and, on July 17, walked out of a committee meeting when Chair Chuck Grassley called the vote before debate concluded; Republicans advanced the nomination without them. Democratic lawmakers later released roughly 150 pages of internal emails and text messages that they say bolster Reuveni’s account. Two additional unnamed whistle-blowers have since come forward, and more than 900 former Justice Department attorneys, as well as two retired judges from the Third Circuit, urged the Senate to reject the nominee. Bove has denied ever instructing staff to defy court orders and dismissed the new documents as taken out of context. Republicans praised Bove’s earlier tenure as a terrorism prosecutor and argued that the allegations lacked corroboration. His confirmation restores a Republican-appointed majority on the Third Circuit and marks the second appellate judge installed during Trump’s second term, following the July 14 approval of Whitney Hermandorfer to the Sixth Circuit. The White House has signaled more nominations in the months ahead.