As chief judge of the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia since 2023, Judge James E. Boasberg has been responsible for setting the tone of the court through some of its highest-profile dealings with President Trump, including overseeing the end of grand jury inquiries in both federal cases against Mr. Trump, the 2020 elections case and the president’s handling of classified documents.
But in the last several days, Judge Boasberg and his court have been drawn into a battle with the Trump administration over immigration enforcement that threatens, more than anything to date, to pitch the branches of government into a constitutional crisis.
Over the weekend, the Trump administration sent three planes carrying 238 migrants from Venezuela to El Salvador, even as Judge Boasberg ordered a halt to the deportations and turning any planes around. Shortly before the migrants were expelled, Mr. Trump signed an executive order invoking the Alien Enemies Act, a law from 1798 that gives the president power to deport citizens and subjects of any foreign nation with which the United States is at war or which are in the process of an invasion. Mr. Trump’s order justified the deportations by accusing the migrants of being members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that he charged with “conducting irregular warfare against the territory of the United States both directly and at the direction, clandestine or otherwise,” of President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela.
On Monday, the threat of a showdown between the executive and the judicial branches appeared to grow, as Justice Department lawyers stonewalled Judge Boasberg and tried to get him removed from the case, refusing to answer any of his questions about the deportation flights and claiming Mr. Trump had unfettered power to remove immigrants from the United States that could not be questioned by the courts. It worsened still after Mr. Trump called for Judge Boasberg’s impeachment on his social media platform, Truth Social, and the Supreme Court’s chief justice, John G. Roberts, rebuked the idea in a public statement.
Here’s more about Judge Boasberg, the jurist going toe-to-toe with the Trump administration.
Who is Judge Boasberg?
Judge Boasberg, who goes by the nickname Jeb, spent his formative years in Washington, D.C., while his father worked for Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration. He went to St. Alban’s, an all-boys prep school, attended Yale University, where he played basketball and was a member of the secretive Skull and Bones club. During law school at Yale, he lived with Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court justice.
Before Judge Boasberg wore robes, he was a homicide prosecutor in Washington, D.C. President George W. Bush, a fellow Yale and Skull and Bones member, gave him his first job on the bench in 2002, as an associate justice of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Nine years later, former President Barack Obama nominated him to the federal bench in the capital, a position for which he was unanimously confirmed.
In the years since, Judge Boasberg has served on a number of specialized courts. He was on the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which approves surveillance warrants, for seven years, rising to become its presiding judge during the first Trump administration. During the first Trump administration, he was also appointed to the U.S. Alien Terrorist Removal Court as its chief judge, a term that ended earlier this year. He took over as chief judge for the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia in 2023, succeeding Beryl A. Howell.
What are some of his notable rulings?
Judge Boasberg has fielded several polarizing cases that were significant for Mr. Trump. In 2016, he ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigation to release nearly 15,000 emails belonging to Hillary Clinton, the former senator and presidential candidate. But he also dismissed lawsuits trying to force the State Department to recover more of her correspondence, upsetting Mr. Trump.
The following year, Judge Boasberg ruled against a group seeking the release of Mr. Trump’s tax returns, stating that only Congress or Mr. Trump could choose to publicize them.
He is also the judge that ruled in 2012 against the public release of photos of a deceased Osama bin Laden, finding there were reasonable national security ground to keep them private.
Why is Judge Boasberg in conflict with the administration?
Judge Boasberg delivered the order that prompted the standoff with the Trump administration on Saturday night, stating from the bench that the deportations of Venezuelans should be stopped and the planes brought back to the United States. He made the ruling during a swiftly organized hearing to challenge Mr. Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act. Less than an hour later, he delivered a written ruling following up on that order, though the instruction to turn back planes was left out.
The Trump administration maintains that it did not flout a court order because the written order — which they argue is the important one — came only after the flights of migrants that had already taken off for El Salvador. They have also argued that the judge has no power to question the president’s deportation authority.
On Monday, Justice Department lawyers wrote a letter to the federal appeals court asking it to remove Judge Boasberg from the case, and arguing that he had engaged in “highly unusual and improper procedures.” They also refused to answer several of Judge Boasberg’s questions regarding the flights in question, asserting that they could not for national security reasons.
What happens next?
Members of the Trump administration, including Tom Homan, his border czar, have promised to continue the deportations, regardless of court rulings. But the case against Mr. Trump’s efforts to use the Alien Enemies Act, in a case brought by five Venezuelan migrants in federal custody who fear they could be among the administration’s targets, continues.
Judge Boasberg gave the administration a Tuesday deadline to detail how many migrants could theoretically be covered under the Alien Enemies Act. The administration complied, partially — meeting the judge’s deadline but again refusing to detail the answers he sought. The parties are due in court again on Friday to argue the merits of the case.
It is unclear what may flow from Mr. Trump’s Tuesday morning post asserting that Judge Boasberg “should be impeached.” The call prompted a rare statement from Chief Justice John G. Roberts of the Supreme Court, who admonished the idea in a statement saying: “For more than two centuries it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.”
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