Lawyers for the deported migrants will ask the full circuit court to review the panel’s decision, according to plaintiffs’ attorney Lee Gelernt of the American Civil Liberties Union. Gelernt said the majority opinion is “a blow to the rule of law.”

“Our system is built on the executive branch, including the president, respecting court orders. In this case there is no longer any question that the Trump administration willfully violated the court’s order,” Gelernt said in a statement.

Rao was nominated by Trump, a Republican. Boasberg, chief judge of the district court in Washington, D.C., was nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama.

On March 15, 2025, Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order barring the administration from transferring a group of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under an 18th century law. After the order was entered, two planeloads of migrants protected by the order departed from the U.S. on their way to El Salvador, where they were locked up in one of the world’s most violent prisons. The administration said then- Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was responsible for the transfer decision.

Boasberg has said the Trump administration may have acted in bad faith by trying to rush Venezuelan migrants out of the country in defiance of his order. He said he gave the administration “ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions” but concluded that “none of their responses has been satisfactory.”

Last year, the Justice Department filed a misconduct complaint accusing Boasberg of making improper public comments about Trump and his administration. Trump has called for impeaching Boasberg. In a rare rebuke, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts publicly rejected calls for Boasberg’s impeachment.

The case is assigned to Rao and Circuit Judges Justin Walker and J. Michelle Childs. Walker, also a Trump nominee, wrote a separate opinion concurring with Rao’s. Childs, who was nominated by Democratic President Joe Biden, dissented from the majority.

Childs said the court’s majority has trampled on Boasberg’s authority “in a way that will affect not only these contempt proceedings but will also echo in future proceedings against all litigants.”

“Now, any litigant can argue, based on their preferred interpretation of a court’s order, that they did not commit contempt before contempt findings are even made,” Childs wrote in her 80-page dissent.

Obama appointed Boasberg btw

The restraining order was right, the law only applied to circumstances where the US is at war or has been invaded. The purpose of the law was to expediate the removal of foreign adversaries who had previously entered prior to the war or remnants of an invasion force after a war and combinations therein. The US was not at war with nor had been invaded by Venezuela

>legal error
The administration made a legal error when it flew them out in a 24 hour timeframe without a real opportunity to challenge anything. SCOTUS agreed with that 100%. Now the story is that nothing can be done because the quick response the attorneys did do wasn't flawless.

Joke of a ruling that will be reversed by the full circuit and then probably reversed again by our joke of a SCOTUS.

>>1506425
idk, I don't think SCOTUS is derpy enough to make it legal for judicial authority to be ignored like this
Trump tried staring them down during the 14th farce and got nowhere

The joke is that the judge tried to keep aliens in the US who have no business or authority to remain in the US. The Judge's duty is to make rulings according to law, not give unentitled gifts to alien criminals.

>>1506381
>The administration made a legal error
Federal appeals court disagrees and called Boasberg a faggot retard.

>>1506425
If SCOTUS does it then expect impeachment, this entire scandal will last past 2026 and past the November election, where the Blue Wave will ensure that impeachments are handed out like candy and every single Republican appointee is either fired or investigated. That will include Kavanaugh.

Criminals should try this shit.
>Now sure, your honor, you ordered me to remain in the state, and I left for El Salvador, but have you considered you didn't specify which state and I was solid the whole time?

>>1506437
They don't disagree in the first part. Their argument is Boasberg didn't say the magic words exactly right so there's no contempt. They also say throwing Kristi Noam under the bus and prosecuting her is ok in theory.

>>1506443
>Their argument is Boasberg didn't say the magic words exactly right so there's no contempt.
They issued a writ of mandamus against Boasberg; a superior appellate court is compelling him with a court order to act in a way that is non-discretionary and mandatory because they assume he will abuse his lawful authority if given the opportunity.

This retard had his order vacated by SCOTUS because the plaintiff's suit was brought in the wrong court, but he still threatened to hold government officials in criminal contempt unless they complied with the vacated order.

>>1506445
SCOTUS vacated it while maintaining that the executive branch shouldn't do what it did. Judge Rao and Walker both do come complaining about the wording of the TRO if you actually read down.

The thing is this whole properly filed habeas petition in the state of Texas almost definitely wouldn't have been possible in time. The "series of fast-moving events" Rao talks about was a manufactured crisis of the admin trying to do an end-run around the law. All there is then legalistic arguments why investigating that infringes on the executive branch. They talk about that too.

>>1506442
I’ve seen a tradesman argue that he didn’t dispose concrete into a storm water drain, it wasn’t concrete it was merely cement dust