A panel of federal judges handed President Trump a major victory Friday, overturning a ruling that threatened to hold the administration in contempt over migrant flights to El Salvador earlier this year.
The DC Circuit Court of Appeals vacated Chief US District Judge James Boasberg’s April 16 order finding “probable cause” to hold executive branch officials in criminal contempt for allegedly ignoring his March 15 order to stop deportation flights to Central America.
In a split decision, appellate Judge George Katsas — a Trump appointee — said Boasberg’s decision represented an “improper use of the contempt power” since the US Supreme Court had already lifted Boasberg’s ban on the flights before the district judge ordered the feds to “purge their contempt.”
Boasberg — a Barack Obama appointee — ordered Trump administration lawyers to either retake custody of the deported migrants so they could continue fighting their immigration case in the US or identify the officials who had defied his order.
“The government correctly says it has been put to a Hobson’s choice: comply with an invalid order or name Executive Branch officials for the initiation of criminal contempt proceedings,” Katsas wrote. “The proffered choice impermissibly commingles civil and criminal contempt in a manner that results in substantial prejudice to the government.
“Compounding this error, the district court’s order attempts to control the Executive Branch’s conduct of foreign affairs, an area in which a court’s power is at its lowest ebb,” Katsas added.
Judge Cornelia Pillard, an Obama appointee, dissented, writing: “Our system of courts cannot long endure if disappointed litigants defy court orders with impunity rather than legally challenge them. That is why willful disobedience of a court order is punishable as criminal contempt.”
Following the initial March 15 hearing, Boasberg ordered a 14-day stay on the Trump administration’s use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to ship suspected Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang members to the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in El Salvador.
But hours after the hearing, two planes of deportees landed in the Central American country, with the Trump administration arguing the judge’s order had come after the planes left US airspace.
The high court overturned the stay on April 7, with Boasberg issuing his scathing contempt threat nine days later.
Attorney General Pam Bondi celebrated the appeals court’s ruling as a “major victory” in a statement on X Friday and backed President Trump’s choice to invoke the Alien Enemies Act to deport criminal migrants.
The AG added that the ruling validated Justice Department arguments that Boasberg’s blast was “failed judicial overreach at its worst.”
In July, the Trump administration said it had returned 252 Venezuelans who had been held at CECOT to their home country.
Lee Gelernt of the American Civil Liberties Union, who led the case on behalf of the deportees, told The Post in a statement: “We disagree with the ruling and are considering all our options to challenge it.”
