A federal appeals panel on Friday terminated a district-court judge’s plan to assess whether Trump administration officials were guilty of criminal contempt for sending flights of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador, despite the judge’s verbal order that they turn around and return to the United States.
The ruling by the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia will make it far more difficult for Judge James E. Boasberg to determine the details of who was made aware of his order in March, and why the planes continued on to El Salvador.
Judge Boasberg had ruled in April that there was probable cause to believe the administration had committed criminal contempt by ignoring his order. But the administration appealed.
The brief order was accompanied by 57 pages of concurrences by Judges Gregory G. Katsas and Neomi Rao. It represents a victory for Mr. Trump and a brushback of a judge who had sought to curb Mr. Trump’s second-term agenda, earning his ire.
Judge Katsas wrote that any order to turn planes around midair would be “indefensible,” comparing it to a district-court judge who had ordered President Richard M. Nixon’s administration to stop bombing Cambodia during the Vietnam War, which was quickly stayed.
In a 49-page dissent, Judge Cornelia Pillard wrote that government officials “appear to have disobeyed” Judge Boasberg’s order and that she would have let Judge Boasberg move forward with criminal contempt proceedings. “The rule of law depends on obedience to judicial orders,” she wrote.
Judge Katsas and Judge Rao were nominated by Mr. Trump. Judge Pillard was nominated by President Barack Obama. Judge Boasberg was nominated first by President George W. Bush to the D.C. Superior Court and then to the Federal District Court bench by President Barack Obama.
Judge Boasberg’s initial order was issued on March 15, shortly after he received an urgent request from lawyers representing five Venezuelan migrants to block Mr. Trump if he invoked a wartime authority, the Alien Enemies Act, to deport them and others without notice or a hearing.
When Judge Boasberg convened a hearing at 5 p.m., the government was in the process of loading more than 200 other Venezuelans onto planes. At 6:48 p.m., the judge verbally ordered the government not to deport anyone under the Alien Enemies Act and to bring back any planes that had taken off. Shortly after, he ordered the government not to remove the Venezuelan detainees but left out the explicit requirement for airborne planes to turn around.
Despite Judge Boasberg’s order, the planes flew to El Salvador, where the Venezuelans were taken to a maximum-security prison. When the judge asked why on March 17, the government argued it had complied with his written order, which they claimed superseded the verbal one.
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