# James Boasberg Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia since March 17, 2023, and the judge at the center of the second Trump term's fight over whether court orders bind the executive. ## Career Boasberg was born in 1963 and educated at Yale (B.A., J.D.) and at St Peter's College, Oxford. He was a D.C. prosecutor before [[George W. Bush]] appointed him to the D.C. Superior Court in 2002. Barack Obama nominated him to the federal district court in 2010, and the Senate confirmed him **96–0** in March 2011. From 2014 to 2021 he also sat on the [[FISA Court]], and was its presiding judge in 2020–21. His docket has never been partisan in one direction. He blocked Arkansas's [[Medicaid Work Requirements]] in 2019, but he also sentenced [[Kevin Clinesmith]], the FBI lawyer who altered a Carter Page surveillance email, to probation in 2021. In November 2025 he ruled **for** [[Meta]] in the [[FTC]] monopoly case, finding the agency had not proved a personal-social-networking monopoly. ## The Alien Enemies Act flights - **March 15, 2025.** Hours after the [[Alien Enemies Act]] proclamation, in *[[J.G.G. v. Trump]]*, he ordered at 6:48 p.m. that any plane already in the air "needs to be returned." Two planes that had left Texas before the order flew on to El Salvador, and 137 men were delivered to CECOT under the Act ([[Kilmar Abrego Garcia CECOT]]). - **March 18, 2025.** Trump called for his impeachment. The same day Chief Justice [[John Roberts]] issued a rare public statement: "impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision." - **April 16, 2025.** He found **probable cause** that the government had committed criminal contempt. ## The appeals court shuts down the contempt case The D.C. Circuit stopped the contempt inquiry twice. Both times the majority was made up of Trump-appointed judges. | Date | Step | |---|---| | Apr 18, 2025 | A 2–1 panel issues an administrative stay | | Aug 8, 2025 | The panel grants mandamus and vacates the probable-cause order | | Nov 14, 2025 | The full court declines rehearing; six judges write that the inquiry may continue | | Nov 19, 2025 | Boasberg resumes on a "clean slate" | | Dec 8, 2025 | He orders two DOJ lawyers to testify about who decided the planes would fly on | | Dec 12, 2025 | A new 2–1 panel stays the testimony | | Apr 14, 2026 | Judges Neomi Rao and Justin Walker grant a second mandamus ordering him to **terminate** the proceedings; Judge J. Michelle Childs dissents at length | The majority's ground was that criminal contempt requires violating an order that is "clear and specific," and that the March 15 order did not clearly bar handing the men to Salvadoran custody. The [[ACLU]] said it would seek rehearing by the full court. In February 2026 he separately ordered the government to facilitate the return of the Venezuelans it had removed. ## The pressure campaign - **Impeachment.** Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) filed articles in March 2025 over the flights (H.Res. 270) and again on November 4, 2025 (H.Res. 858). The second set concerned nondisclosure orders Boasberg had signed in 2023 on [[Jack Smith]]'s subpoenas for Republican senators' phone toll records, part of the "Arctic Frost" investigation that [[Chuck Grassley]] made public in October 2025. The judiciary's Administrative Office said judges signing such orders are typically not told who the targets are. - **The Senate.** On November 17, 2025 Sen. [[Eric Schmitt]] and other Republican senators asked the judiciary to suspend him pending impeachment. On December 4, 2025 a Senate Judiciary subcommittee chaired by [[Ted Cruz]] held a hearing on impeaching him and Judge Deborah Boardman. Neither judge testified. - **The misconduct complaint.** Attorney General [[Pam Bondi]] filed a judicial-misconduct complaint on July 28, 2025 over remarks he made at a Judicial Conference meeting. Sixth Circuit Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton dismissed it, and the dismissal was reported in early 2026. None of these moves has reached a vote that could remove him. Their effect is cumulative: in the executive-defiance cases, the judge is made the subject. See [[Judicial Independence]]. ## See also - [[Alien Enemies Act]] · [[J.G.G. v. Trump]] · [[Kilmar Abrego Garcia CECOT]] · [[Immigration Removal Pipeline]] - [[Federal Judges Hub]] · [[Judicial Independence]] · [[Impeachment and Removal Process Flow]] - [[Tanya Chutkan]] · [[Ana Reyes]] · [[Timothy Kelly]]