A federal appeals court panel on Friday temporarily blocked U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s contempt proceedings against the Trump administration over its deportation flights to El Salvador last month.
A split U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit noted its order is intended to provide “sufficient opportunity” for the court to consider the government’s appeal and “should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of that motion.”
For now, the ruling stops Boasberg, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, from proceeding with efforts to hold Trump administration officials in contempt. On Wednesday, Boasberg claimed to have found probable cause, describing the administration’s refusal to reverse the March 15 deportation flights as “a willful disregard” of his court order, even though the case has been removed from his courtroom by the Supreme Court and remanded to a federal court in Texas.
