We are at a perilous time, when our most basic freedoms are at risk.

It is vital that we not hand President Trump even more power to wreck our democracy than he already has. Among other things, that means not confirming anyone he nominates to be a federal judge.

In early May, Trump announced the first group of judicial nominations of his second term. One is for the Sixth Circuit, which covers Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee. The other four are for district courts in Missouri. Senators on the Judiciary Committee are poring over the nominees’ records in preparation for a hearing expected in early June.

Senators are right to look at a nominee’s record. But in these unprecedented times, the most important record for them to look at is that of the president making the nomination. And Donald Trump’s record shows that he’s dangerously unqualified to be appointing lifetime judges to the bench.

Fair and independent courts are a vital part of our checks and balances. And with the Republican-controlled Congress so far unwilling to stop Trump’s ongoing abuses of power, the courts are more important than ever.

At Trump’s order, people in the United States have been kidnapped and sent to a concentration camp in El Salvador without any chance to defend themselves. Others have been arrested and threatened with deportation because of their constitutionally protected political speech.

Meanwhile, Trump is having the Justice Department investigate officials from his first administration who criticized him or didn’t support his efforts to steal the 2020 election. He’s abused his power to punish law firms for pursuing cases against him or for hiring lawyers who have worked against him.

He’s also threatened to withhold federal funds from universities unless they suppress certain viewpoints — even funds for lifesaving cancer research are being withheld as a weapon of coercion.

And his administration sent armed agents to intimidate a Justice Department whistleblower preparing to testify publicly about the corruption she saw.

None of this is legal. But even when courts have ordered the administration to comply with the law, Trump has defied them.

A typical example came amid the administration’s effort to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which it can’t eliminate without congressional approval. A court ordered that the government could only eliminate any particular federal job after a careful assessment that it isn’t needed for the bureau to do what Congress requires.

Instead of complying, the administration moved to fire more than 90 percent of the bureau’s employees.

Of course, the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia is the most well-known example of Trump’s refusal to comply with judicial orders.

On April 10, the Supreme Court directed the government to effectuate Abrego Garcia’s return from imprisonment in El Salvador. As of this writing, that still hasn’t happened. Trump has even admitted publicly that it’s within his power to have the innocent man returned, but that he just doesn’t want to do it.

Then there are the threats. When a judge blocked one of the administration’s kidnapping programs, Trump called for his impeachment, which MAGA allies in the House are pushing for. Judges hearing Trump cases are facing threats including bomb threats and swatting.

Perhaps for the first time in history, federal judges are now worried that the White House will order the U.S. Marshals Service to withdraw the security protection it now provides judges.

As long as Trump continues to disregard the rule of law and threaten judges he believes are standing in the way of his authoritarian rule, the Senate should not be confirming any judicial nominees he puts forward.