In a Wednesday order, Boasberg gave the government a deadline of April 23 either to comply with his initial order and thereby purge the contempt or, alternatively, identify members of the administration who should be subject to individual sanctions for their role.
I’ll take progress any way I can get it, but I still don’t see this amounting to a whole hell of a lot.
We already know that Trump isn’t going to bring any of these people back. He’s already made that abundantly clear. Bukele is running cover for him, and there’s obviously not a thing that Boasburg could do to touch him. So the chances of any of these people being returned to the US are virtually nonexistent.
And is he seriously asking the Trump administration to self-identify who should be punished for all of this? Does he honestly think that the DOJ is going to hand over a list of names to be sanctioned? Because if so, I want a lifetime supply of whatever he’s smoking.
All the DOJ lawyers have to do is say “The President has the final say in all matters regarding the deportation of these people. All others involved in the case are simply advisors with no decision-making authority.”. And everybody else within Boasburg’s reach can just testify that “Hey, we advised against this but Trump has refused to change his mind.”. Now what? Trump can’t be touched, he can simply pardon anyone facing criminal charges, and the DOJ can just release anyone that Boasburg holds in contempt since actual enforcement of the contempt charge falls under the DOJ.
Like I said, I’ll take some progress any way I can get it and this is at least a step in the right direction. But it still seems like just more political theater. At least the “or else” bone is out there now, but I still don’t see a whole lot of meat on it, and I see no meaningful method of actual enforcement. This, to me, just seems like another way to let the case spin its wheels for a while without having to concede that there’s little to nothing that can be done and the courts actually have no real enforcement power.
Give me an “or else” that actually has a hard deadline, actual consequences, and a viable method of enforcement or it’s just more political theater.
And is he seriously asking the Trump administration to self-identify who should be punished for all of this? Does he honestly think that the DOJ is going to hand over a list of names to be sanctioned? Because if so, I want a lifetime supply of whatever he’s smoking.
He’s asking, and he almost certainly believes he’s legally entitled to an answer. He almost certainly believes the DOJ will not cooperate, but potential noncompliance by defendants shouldn’t influence rulings.
The only thing for the judge to do is issue rulings and orders as if things are normal.
Oh, there’s a hell of a lot more these judges could do. They’re just too chicken shit to actually do it.
This sounds more important than it actually is.
First, the judge didn’t actually cite anyone for criminal contempt, he just said he could have.
Second, criminal contempt citations get forwarded to the DoJ for prosecution, and we all know this DoJ will find an excuse not to prosecute.
Third, they already have an excuse: this is in relation to his orders from a few weeks ago that the Supreme Court invalidated because it said the plainiffs raised the case in the wrong place. His argument is that the orders were in force right up to the point when the SC quashed it, so the government should have complied. But they are not going to investigate themselves over an order that didn’t matter in the end.
In a Wednesday order, Boasberg gave the government a deadline of April 23 either to comply with his initial order and thereby purge the contempt or, alternatively, identify members of the administration who should be subject to individual sanctions for their role.
Certainly sounds like an order to me.
Right, but they will not comply (because the initial order was eventually vacated), and the only members they will identify is DEEZ NUTS.
And whoever this judge decides to charge with contempt eventually will not be prosecuted.
FWIW, the judge did say that if the DoJ declines to prosecute, he will appoint an outside attorney to prosecute instead.
Yea it seems like if you read the whole article, you might not make wrong assumptions about the judge
So the consequences will be…
Have you read the article?
