Appeals court tosses judge's contempt finding against Trump administration in prison deportations

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A split appeals court panel tossed out a judge’s contempt finding against President Donald Trump's administration on Friday in a case over deportations to an El Salvador prison.

The decision comes after planes carrying Venezuelan migrants landed at the prison even after U.S District Judge James E. Boasberg said in court they must return to the United States.

Boasberg found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt of court. The ruling marked a dramatic battle between the judicial and executive branches of government.

But the divided three-judge panel in the nation’s capital found that Boasberg had exceeded his authority and intruded on the executive branch’s foreign affairs powers.

Judges Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao, both of whom were nominated by Trump in his first term in the White House, agreed with the unsigned majority opinion.

“The district court’s order attempts to control the Executive Branch’s conduct of foreign affairs, an area in which a court’s power is at its lowest ebb,” Rao wrote.

Judge Cornelia Pillard, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, dissented. “The majority does an exemplary judge a grave disservice by overstepping its bounds to upend his effort to vindicate the judicial authority that is our shared trust,” she wrote.

The 250 migrants have since been released back to their home country in a prisoner swap with the U.S. after months at the mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT.

Boasberg had accused Trump administration officials of rushing deportees out of the U.S. under the Alien Enemies Act before they could challenge their removal in court and then willfully disregarding his order that planes already in the air should return.

The Trump administration has denied any violation, saying the judge's directive to return the planes was made verbally in court but not included in his written order.

Last month, the Justice Department filed an unusual judicial misconduct complaint against Boasberg over comments he allegedly made at a closed-door meeting of judges as well as his actions in the deportations case. The complaint calls for the case to be taken away from Boasberg while an investigation proceeds.

Attorney General Pam Bondi celebrated the appeals court ruling, calling it a “MAJOR victory defending President Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act” in a social media post and vowing to “continue fighting and WINNING in court.”

Lee Gelernt, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who represented the migrants, said there was “zero ambiguity” in Boasberg's order about the planes.

“We strongly disagree with today’s decision regarding contempt and are considering all options going forward," he said.