Appeals Court Removes Boasberg’s Contempt Order in Trump Admin Deportations Case

Judge Neomi Rao said that U.S. District Judge James Boasberg had engaged in an ‘egregious’ abuse of his power.

District Judge James Boasberg, chief judge of the District Court for the District of Columbia, stands for a portrait at E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington on March 16, 2023. Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via AP

An appeals court has removed an order that could have resulted in the Trump administration being found in contempt as part of a tense confrontation between it and U.S. District Judge James Boasberg.

Boasberg had said earlier this year that he found probable cause to hold the administration in contempt because it purportedly violated his orders to halt deportations under the Alien Enemies Act.

In a 2–1 decision on Aug. 8, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit indicated that Boasberg went too far. Judge Gregory Katsas said that one of Boasberg’s orders could have been read in different ways.

Judge Neomi Rao described Boasberg’s decision as an “egregious” abuse of the court’s contempt power and said Boasberg had lost the authority to try and “coerce compliance” with his original order. That’s because his initial halts on the deportations had been vacated by the Supreme Court in another decision from April.

One of the judges, Judge Cornelia Pillard, defended Boasberg and said the Trump administration appeared to have disobeyed his directions.

“Our system of courts cannot long endure if disappointed litigants defy court orders with impunity rather than legally challenge them,” Pillard said. “This is why willful disobedience of a court order is punishable as criminal contempt.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi celebrated the appeals court’s decision on social media.

“Our [Justice Department] attorneys just secured a MAJOR victory defending President Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport illegal alien terrorists,” she said.

“The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed what we’ve argued for months: Judge Boasberg’s attempt to sanction the government for deporting criminal-alien terrorists was a ‘clear abuse of discretion’—failed judicial overreach at its worst.”

The appeals decision was just the latest flashpoint in an ongoing confrontation between the executive and judicial branches, which have been battling over their respective authority in President Donald Trump’s second term.

The appeals court decision followed a complaint in which the Justice Department alleged that Boasberg acted inappropriately during a meeting in March before Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and other judges.

Roberts appeared to push back in March on Trump’s suggestion that judges such as Boasberg should be impeached.

“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said in a statement provided to The Epoch Times. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”