Washington
CNN
—
Justice Department attorneys will appear before Judge James Boasberg on Thursday to make its case for why the Trump administration did not violate his orders halting the use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans the government has accused of being part of a gang.
The so-called show cause hearing represents the closest a federal judge has come to deciding whether the administration has defied a judicial command.
While other judges around the US have considered in recent months whether the government violated their orders in disputes over federal funding and transgender rights, Thursday’s hearing goes much further as it’s the first step in Boasberg potentially holding officials in contempt and possibly ordering sanctions.
The case has emerged as one of the highest-profile and most contentious court battles of President Donald Trump’s second term, with the president calling for Boasberg’s impeachment over his handling of the matter, leading to a rare rebuke of the rhetoric from Chief Justice John Roberts.
At the center of the case is Trump’s invocation of the sweeping wartime authority in a 1798 law to let his administration quickly carry out the deportations. Shortly after, civil rights group representing the Venezuelans mounted a legal challenge, Boasberg said from the bench during a March 15 hearing that any planes carrying migrants deported under the authority must immediately return to the US.
But two such flights carrying more than 100 migrants continued to El Salvador the day of the hearing, and Boasberg promptly embarked on a fact-finding mission about the flights, vowing to “get to the bottom of whether they violated my order – who ordered this and what the consequences will be.”
Attorneys for the Trump administration are arguing that Boasberg’s oral command “did not amount to a binding injunction” and that a written order he issued shortly after the proceedings is the controlling ruling in the matter.
That written order contained no such language about the planes and instead just said the administration was enjoined from removing the migrants subject to Trump’s proclamation invoking the law while the judge’s temporary restraining orders remained in effect.
Lawyers representing the Venezuelans counter that the judge’s written order encompassed his oral order by including the language, “As discussed in today’s hearing,” and argue that there’s no question that the administration violated the court’s orders.
“The purpose of the Court’s order was unmistakable – to keep individuals from being handed over to a foreign government,” they told Boasberg in court papers. “And counsel for Defendants stated that he ‘understood’ on March 15 that the Court had orally directed the government to turn planes around immediately.”
It’s possible that Thursday’s hearing could also include some discussion of the administration’s invocation of the state secrets privilege to withhold information from Boasberg that he’s seeking to decide whether the government flouted his judicial orders.
The administration told Boasberg last week that it was invoking the state secrets privilege to avoid answering under seal a series of questions posed by the judge, including ones concerning the exact timing of when the two planes took off from US soil on March 15 and left US airspace that day, as well as the specific times individuals deported under Trump’s proclamation were transferred out of US custody that day.
It’s now up to the judge to decide whether to uphold the invocation.
