A federal appeals court panel voted 2-1 Friday to scrap a judge’s probable cause finding to hold Trump administration officials in criminal contempt for disobeying his order to turn around deportation flights ultimately destined for El Salvador.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled the administration was entitled to an intervention because U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s efforts to punish administration officials raised immediate concerns.
“The order forces a coequal branch to choose between capitulating to an unlawful judicial order and subjecting its officials to a dubious prosecution,” wrote U.S. Circuit Judge Neomi Rao, who was in the majority.
U.S. Circuit Judge Cornelia Pillard, an appointee of former President Obama, dissented.
“Even when faced with what reasonably appeared to him to be foot dragging, evasion, and outright disregard for his jurisdiction and his orders, he responded with unfailing composure,” Pillard wrote.
“The majority does an exemplary judge a grave disservice by overstepping its bounds to upend his effort to vindicate the judicial authority that is our shared trust,” she continued.
Boasberg entered the national limelight for being assigned the first lawsuit when Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act in March to swiftly deport alleged Venezuelan gang members to a notorious Salvadoran megaprison.
At a hastily convened Saturday hearing that weekend, Boasberg ordered the administration turn around any airborne planes deporting migrants under the rarely invoked statute. The order was later wiped by the Supreme Court.
Exemplary judges do not try to make themselves into the whole executive branch and put themselves in the place of a President. Not to mention they do not simply ignore the Supreme Court when they are told to stand down because they do not have the jurisdiction or even a valid charge to bring forward to court. Oh, and they do not skip the district attorney bringing the charge and bringing before a jury to decide whether to bring to court. Rogue judges have been wrong on so many levels and actually actually appear to be coordinated in a judicial coup that is without a doubt in step with forces against the rule of law of the United States. If Citizens with civics classes in high school can see that, then those with all of their study of the law and the Constitution should be able to see the same. Disgusting attempt to try to overthrow the will of the majority of the Citizens of the United States.
All For the Deep State