Harry Litman - The Hidden Cost of J.G.G. v. Trump [View all]

Friday’s decision from a divided D.C. Circuit panel in J.G.G. v. Trump is legally shaky and may yet be reversed. But whatever its future prospects, the opinion — and its long prelude — has likely nullified the best opportunity we had to establish with certainty the Administration’s willingness to defy court orders and misrepresent facts to the courts, Congress, and the public. The stars were aligned, as they very rarely are, to bring that finding home; but now they have been eclipsed, likely for good.

The J.G.G. case traces back to the Administration’s first and, in many ways, most pitched dispute with the federal courts. In mid-March, the Administration quietly issued a finding under the Alien Enemies Act and began rounding up hundreds of detainees to ship to El Salvador’s CECOT prison. Lawyers for the detainees got wind of the imminent action. They immediately rushed into the courtroom of D.C. Chief District Judge Jeb Boasberg, who convened an emergency late-afternoon hearing. During the hearing, he delivered an oral order that planes carrying detainees be turned around and returned to U.S. custody so the detainees could receive due process and an opportunity to challenge their deportation. Shortly thereafter, Boasberg followed up with a written temporary restraining order blocking any deportations.

As everyone now knows, the Administration did not comply and delivered all the detainees to CECOT, where they were imprisoned under allegedly inhumane conditions and subjected to brutal mistreatment.

When Boasberg, a few days later, pressed the DOJ for an explanation of the apparent violation of the order, the Department responded with a laughably threadbare set of excuses, eventually retreating to a position that could be paraphrased as: “Oh, c’mon, Boasberg, let it go already.”

https://harrylitman.substack.com/p/the-hidden-cost-of-jgg-v-trump