The Trump campaign against immigration enforcement: Judge Boasberg, the DA’s bench, and the judicial branch of authority re-calibrated
As chief judge of the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia since 2023, Judge James E. Boasberg has been responsible for setting the tone of the court through some of its highest-profile dealings with President Trump, including overseeing the end of grand jury inquiries in both federal cases against Mr. Trump, the 2020 elections case and the president’s handling of classified documents.
In the past few days, Judge Boasberg and his court have been engaged in a conflict with the Trump administration over immigration enforcement that threatens to pitch the branches of government into a constitutional crisis.
Over the weekend, the Trump administration sent three planes carrying 238 migrants from Venezuela to El Salvador, even as Judge Boasberg ordered a halt to the deportations and to turn the planes around. The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 allows the president to deport anyone if the United States is at war or in the process of invasion, and Mr. Trump signed an Executive order shortly before the migrants were expelled. In his order justifying the deportations, Mr. Trump wrote that the migrants were involved in a drug ring and were being shipped to Venezuela where they would fight against the leader of the country.
President Trump said on social media Tuesday that he should be impeached for acting as a check on executive branch authority. Legal experts said that’s part of a broader campaign by the White House and its allies to intimidate members of the federal judiciary that have blocked some of Trump’s efforts to dismantle the federal government.
But threats of impeachment “contribute to a toxic environment that increases the difficulty of an already difficult job,” said Fogel, who now leads the Berkeley Judicial Institute.
It has been established for more than two centuries that impeachment isn’t an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
The Judge’s Legacy: An Empirical Account of the Boasberg’s Special Role in a High-Dimensional Justice System
A few years ago, at the age of 33, he had a knee replacement. Ron Machen said the judge was pretty good on the basketball court.
In 1996, Boasberg joined the office in Washington and stayed for more than five years. Former colleague Glenn Kirschner said Boasberg “never lost a homicide case,” despite taking some of the most difficult assignments in the office at the time.
It was ordered that Mike Pence testify to the grand jury as part of the investigation into the assault on the US Capitol.
He’s also made trips to his alma mater, Yale, for speaking engagements with fellow judge, Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee, stressing their shared commitment to the rule of law.
“We socialize with each other, and we genuinely respect each other,” Friedrich said. “You can become better lawyers and better people by listening to the other side.”