Appeals court dismisses contempt order against Trump admin. officials
Aug. 8 (UPI) -- A federal appeals court ruled Friday dismissed a lower court's order that Trump administration officials could be held in contempt for efforts related to deporting hundreds of Venezuelans.
The case stems from a district judge's order finding probable cause that federal officials committed criminal contempt by violating an order to turn around planes full of detainees on their way to El Salvador.
Two of the three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit agreed with the administration. Trump has denounced U.S. District Judge James Boasberg for overstepping his authority by beginning criminal contempt proceedings in April.
The opinion issued Friday was unsigned. Judges Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao -- who were both appointed by Trump -- agreed to toss out Boasberg's order. Judge Cornelia Pillard dissented. She was appointed by President Barack Obama.
"The district court's order raises troubling questions about judicial control over core executive functions like the conduct of foreign policy and the prosecution of criminal offenses," Katsas wrote in an opinion. "And it implicates an unsettled issue whether the judiciary may impose criminal contempt for violating injunctions entered without jurisdiction."
In her dissent, Pillard wrote that the administration should have dealt with the contempt charges instead of ignoring them.
"Our system of courts cannot long endure if disappointed litigants defy court orders with impunity rather than legally challenge them," Pillard wrote. "That is why willful disobedience of a court order is punishable as criminal contempt."
Boasberg's order to stop the deportation planes comes from immigration officials trying to deport Venezuelans that the administration said were members of the Tren de Aragua gang. In March, Trump used the Alien Enemies Act to remove the Venezuelans quickly.
A group of migrants challenged the deportations in court, and Boasberg temporarily blocked the deportations, issuing an oral order to return them. Then he issued a written order to prevent the administration from conducting deportations under the Alien Enemies act.
On July 28, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that a misconduct complaint was filed against Boasberg "for making improper public comments" about Trump amid his administration's targeting of the U.S. judicial system.
The complaint focused on comments made by Boasberg to Chief Justice John Roberts and some two dozen other judges who attended a March 11 judicial conference.
According to the document, Boasberg said he believed that the Trump administration would "disregard rulings of federal courts," which would trigger "a constitutional crisis."
Boasberg ruled on June 4 that at least 137 migrants sent to El Salvador on flights in mid-March must be allowed to challenge their removal under the Alien Enemies Act.
He issued a 69-page ruling that the Department of Homeland Security had "improperly" sent migrants on flights from Texas to El Salvador's maximum security prison without giving them a chance to challenge their designation as "alien enemies."
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