A federal appeals court judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice against Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, 62, who opposed President Donald Trump’s administration in its efforts to deport several Venezuelans to El Salvador, according to Reuters.
In July, US Attorney General Pam Bondi took the unusual step of filing a complaint against Boasberg in Washington, DC, alleging that he made inappropriate remarks about Trump during a meeting of the judiciary’s policymaking body, the Judicial Conference.
In a newly issued order dated Dec. 19, Chief U.S. Circuit Judge Jeffrey Sutton of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals said the alleged statements, even if true, did not violate judicial ethics rules.
The complaint filed by Bondi came days after Boasberg indicated he might initiate disciplinary proceedings against Justice Department lawyers over their conduct in a lawsuit filed by Venezuelans protesting their transfer to a Salvadoran prison.
In April, Boasberg found that the administration appeared to have acted “in bad faith” when it quickly organized three deportation flights on March 15 to coincide with his emergency trial to evaluate the legality of the effort.
The Justice Department’s complaint centered on remarks attributed to Boasberg by the conservative newspaper The Federalist during a March session of the US Judicial Conference in the presence of US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. The department claimed that Boasberg expressed concerns to Roberts and others that the administration could ignore court rulings and trigger a “constitutional crisis.”
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The Justice Department argued that the statements violated the judicial code of conduct and that Boasberg acted improperly based on his opinions on litigation involving Venezuelans who were deported under the Alien Enemy Act.
Citing potential conflicts among D.C. judges, Chief Justice Roberts referred the complaint to the Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit Judicial Council. Judge Sutton ruled that the DOJ had not provided evidence that Boasberg had made the statements, noting that even if they had, they would not have been inappropriate in a closed session of the judges’ policy-making body.
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Who is James Boasberg?
James Boasberg, born 1963, is an American lawyer and attorney who serves as the Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He was nominated by former President Barack Obama in 2011 and received unanimous confirmation from the US Senate.
After completing his studies at St. Albans in 1981, Boasberg enrolled at Yale University, where he joined the Skull and Bones college society. He played forward for the Yale Bulldogs men’s basketball team. He graduated magna cum laude in 1985 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.
The following year he received a Master of Studies from St Peter’s College, Oxford. From 1986 to 1987, Boasberg taught history and coached women’s basketball at the Horace Mann School in New York City. He later attended Yale Law School, graduating in 1990 with a Juris Doctor degree.
Boasberg served as a Supreme Court judge for the District of Columbia from 2002 to 2011, appointed by former President George W. Bush.
In 2014, Chief Justice John Roberts appointed him to the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), where he later served as presiding judge from 2020 to 2021. That same year, he was appointed to the United States Alien Terrorist Removal Court and named its chief judge.
(With agency input)