U.S. District Judge James Boasberg of the DC District Court claimed he found probable cause to hold President Donald Trump’s administration in contempt for deporting illegal aliens to El Salvador.
The Court issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) banning the government from flying the illegal aliens to El Salvador, citing the Alien Enemies Act.
The TRO came as the planes had already departed from the airport.
“As this Opinion will detail, the Court ultimately determines that the Government’s actions on that day demonstrate a willful disregard for its Order, sufficient for the Court to conclude that probable cause exists to find the Government in criminal contempt,” wrote Boasberg. “The Court does not reach such conclusion lightly or hastily; indeed, it has given Defendants ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions. None of their responses has been satisfactory.”
Weird. The Supreme Court vacated Boasberg’s TRO, finding the venue improper for the case since it was one for Habeas Corpus.
The case should be handled in a Texas court.
Boasberg said SCOTUS’s decision “does not excuse the Government’s violation.”
Boasberg wrote:
Instead, it is a foundational legal precept that every judicial order “must be obeyed” — no matter how “erroneous” it “may be” — until a court reverses it. Walker v. City of Birmingham, 388 U.S. 307, 314 (1967). If a party chooses to disobey the order — rather than wait for it to be reversed through the judicial process — such disobedience is punishable as contempt, notwithstanding any later-revealed deficiencies in the order. See id. at 314, 320. That foundational “rule of law” answers not just how this compliance inquiry can proceed, but why it must. See id. at 320. The rule “reflects a belief that in the fair administration of justice no man can be judge in his own case,” no matter how “exalted his station” or “righteous his motives.” Id. at 320–21.
The administration has until April 23 to answer Boasberg’s questions.
If the administration does not take that action, he “will proceed to identify the contemnor(s) and refer the matter for prosecution.”
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY