A federal appeals court Friday shut down Judge James Boasberg's attempt to pursue criminal contempt charges against figures in the Trump administration.
In a 2-1 ruling, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said that Boasberg's orders were overly "ambiguous" and left too much room for interpretation. The panel also found that Boasberg's attempt to hold administration officials in contempt for failing to follow an order that was later overturned by the Supreme Court was unprecedented.
"The district court's order exceeds the contempt power and intrudes on the powers of the Executive Branch," Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee, wrote in the ruling obtained by The Washington Times.
The case stemmed from the American Civil Liberties Union's challenge of President Donald Trump's use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to fast-track the deportation of Venezuelan migrants who were allegedly Tren de Aragua gang members.
On March 15, the Trump administration flew three planeloads of these migrants to a high security prison in El Salvador, which spurred the ACLU to file a motion seeking clarity on the flights.
Following an emergency hearing, Boasberg issued a temporary order, both in person and in writing, which he says was intended to prevent deportation flights from taking off or turn them around if they had already departed.
By that point, two planes were already in the air and a third left later, but there has been disagreement over whether the deportees on the third plane were covered by the judge's order or were foreign nationals who were not affected by the case.
Boasberg has spent the months since demanding that the administration provide answers as to why the planes continued on to El Salvador, despite his order to halt the flights.
He found that the migrant flights likely violated his order and gave the Trump administration a choice of providing the deported migrants with due process or facing a contempt investigation that could result in criminal prosecution.
"The Court does not reach such conclusion lightly or hastily; indeed, it has given Defendants ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions," Boasberg wrote in his ruling. "None of their responses has been satisfactory."
On Friday, the two appellate judges in the majority said the entire situation had spiraled out of control.
"This case is highly unusual, and I have found no other like it, perhaps because no district court has threatened criminal contempt against Executive Branch officials as a backdoor to coercing compliance with an order that has been vacated by the Supreme Court," Rao wrote.
Judge Gregory Katsas, another Trump appointee, joined Rao in shutting down the contempt proceedings.
Dissenting from the decision was Judge Cornelia Pillard, an Obama appointee, who said she believed the government intentionally disobeyed Boasberg's order.
"Our system of courts cannot long endure if disappointed litigants defy court orders with impunity rather than legally challenge them," Pillard wrote. "That is why willful disobedience of a court order is punishable as criminal contempt."
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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