Appeals court halts Boasberg contempt inquiry over Venezuelan deportation flights

A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday halted an effort by U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg to hold contempt hearings after the Trump administration failed to suspend flights carrying Venezuelan men to be imprisoned in El Salvador.

The administration has already said it was former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem who last March ordered flights to take 100 Venezuelan men to a notorious megaprison, despite an order from Boasberg ordering the flights grounded or turned around.

The sharply divided rulings put an end to additional fact-finding by Boasberg, who has faced calls for his impeachment by President Trump.

While two Trump appointees to the bench sided with the president and chastised Boasberg for not being sufficiently clear in his ruling, an Obama appointee said the ruling would have grave consequences should an administration flout a judge’s orders in the future.

“The government has already provided the name of the responsible official, so further judicial investigation is unnecessary and therefore improper,” Judge Neomi Rao wrote in an opinion joined by Judge Justin Walker.

“These proceedings improperly threaten an open-ended, freewheeling inquiry into Executive Branch decision-making on matters of national security that implicate ongoing military and diplomatic initiatives. This judicial intrusion into the autonomy of a co-equal department cannot be remedied by a later appeal from a contempt........

© The Hill