Appeals Court Blocks Anti-Trump Judge’s Contempt Order
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled 2-1 on Friday that U.S. District Judge James Boasberg cannot proceed with potential contempt proceedings against the Trump administration.
The case centers on allegations that the administration violated an emergency court order barring the use of a 1798 law to summarily deport hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador—marking the latest development in a months-long, high-stakes legal battle spanning multiple courts.
Judges Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao, both Trump appointees on the majority-Democrat bench, ruled in favor of the administration, halting Boasberg’s contempt motion from advancing, Fox News reported on Friday. Judge Nina Pillard, an Obama appointee, dissented, the outlet added.
Friday’s 2–1 decision is almost certain to be appealed to the full D.C. Circuit for en banc review, where the Democratic-majority bench is seen as more favorable to the plaintiffs or directly to the Supreme Court.
“The district court here was placed in an enormously difficult position,” Katsas said Friday, writing for the majority.
“Faced with an emergency situation, it had to digest and rule upon novel and complex issues within a matter of hours. In that context, the court quite understandably issued a written order that contained some ambiguity,” Katsas added.
Katsas emphasized that the appellate court’s decision does not address the legality of Trump’s March removals under the Alien Enemies Act, when administration officials used the 1798 immigration law to deport more than 250 Venezuelan nationals to CECOT, El Salvador’s maximum-security prison.
“Nor may we decide whether the government’s aggressive implementation of the presidential proclamation warrants praise or criticism as a policy matter,” he added. “Perhaps it should warrant more careful judicial scrutiny in the future. Perhaps it already has.”
“Regardless, the government’s initial implementation of the proclamation clearly and indisputably was not criminal,” the judge noted.
The decision comes months after Boasberg initially determined there were grounds to pursue potential contempt proceedings in the case.
It follows his order requiring ongoing status updates on the location and custody of the 252 CECOT-class migrants, who were deported last month from El Salvador to Venezuela as part of a prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Venezuela.
It remains unclear how many of those migrants had pending asylum claims in the U.S. or had received “withholding of removal” orders preventing their return to their home country, Fox noted.
Despite the order, hundreds of migrants were deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT prison, where they remained until late last month, when they were transferred to Venezuela as part of a prisoner exchange.
In April, Boasberg ruled there was “probable cause” to proceed with criminal contempt charges against the Trump administration for failing to return the planes to U.S. soil, stating the court had found the administration acted with “willful disregard” for his order.
The appeals court had granted the administration’s request for an emergency stay of that ruling months earlier, raising questions about why it did not act more swiftly on the motion, Fox added.
For months, the Trump administration has clashed with judges who have blocked the president’s executive orders from taking effect. Boasberg, in particular, has become one of Trump’s most prominent judicial adversaries.
Last month, the administration sought to have him removed from overseeing the case and reassigned to a different judge—a long-shot bid that legal experts and former judges say is unlikely to succeed.
Meanwhile, roughly 50 federal immigration judges have now been dismissed, despite the Biden-era backlog of more than three million cases clogging the system, as Trump makes good on his promise to restore law and order, not just at the border but in the courtrooms too, El Pais reported.
