The Trump administration won a court victory in an immigration case Tuesday when an appeals court found U.S. District Judge James Boasberg engaged in a “clear abuse of discretion” last year.
The 2-1 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit comes more than a year after Boasberg first held the Trump administration in criminal contempt.
Boasberg held the Trump administration in contempt when it did not comply with his order to turn around planes carrying deported illegal aliens from Venezuela. The planes were going to El Salvador.
Boasberg, the controversial appointee of President Barack Obama, is the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Circuit Judge Neomi Rao, an appointee of President Donald Trump, wrote for the majority that Boasberg’s contempt investigation is “intrusive,” The Associated Press reported. Rao added that the Trump administration had a “clear and indisputable” right to the termination of the contempt proceedings.
“The district court proposes to probe high-level Executive Branch deliberations about matters of national security and diplomacy. These proceedings are a clear abuse of discretion,” said the majority opinion from Rao and Judge Justin Walker, according to CNN.
“The district court has launched an intrusive criminal contempt investigation into whether the government acted willfully when it transferred suspected Tren de Aragua members to Salvadoran custody. But the end of this investigation is a legal dead end,” the opinion said.
Circuit Judge Michelle Childs, a Joe Biden appointee, dissented in the case.
