US President Donald Trump will speak to the media during a guided tour of the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts before leading the board meeting held in Washington, D.C. on March 17, 2025.
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The Justice Department on Monday called on the Federal Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. to replace a district court judge overseeing a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s deportation of Venezuelan gang members under the wartime Chinese enemy laws.
The request, citing Secretary James Boasberg’s “inappropriate exercise of jurisdiction,” came when Boasberg held a hearing close to top-ranked DOJ lawyers about the circumstances of his deportation over the weekend.
The DOJ asked Boasberg early on Monday without a success cancelling the hearing.
Boasberg ordered the DOJ to return the exile who was still in the air on a flight that began in the US. The court’s filing DOJ argued that “oral orders cannot be enforced by directives,” and said it complied with a written order issued several hours later by Boasberg.
Assistant Deputy Attorney General Abhishek Kambli told Boasburg on Monday that he was not free to talk about the details of the controversial deportation flights in the public environment of the U.S. District Court in Washington.
At the same hearing, the lawyers for five Venezuelan men who sued to challenge a terrifying deportation told Boasberg he wanted to be aware of his language, but said “There have been a lot of talk about the constitutional crisis in recent weeks.”
“I think we’re very close to that,” Gellan said.
Gelernt appeared to refer to the Trump administration’s argument that Kambli’s refusal to answer judge questions about the flight and his alien’s deportation under the enemy laws would not be subject to a judicial order after the flight left US airspace.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re in US airspace or not,” Boasberg said at a hearing Monday.
Kambline replied, “When the plane is in the air and it’s a national security issue.”
Boasberg suggested that the DOJ position was “we don’t care, we’ll do what we want to do.”
Boasberg asked if President Donald Trump had “extra” power when the plane crossed international waters.
“I think my fairness is pretty clear,” Boasberg said, “Don’t end at the edge of the continent.
The judge said he would issue a written order after detailing what he had asked the government after the hearing, “because it clearly doesn’t seem to be putting much weight on my verbal order.”
In a letter to the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals, DOJ opposed Boasburg’s continuing to take the case primarily side by saying it was holding a hearing “to address operational details regarding flights that have removed aliens identified as being related to designated foreign terrorist organizations.”
“The development escalates the interests of the inappropriate exercise of the district court.
There is a risk that jurisdiction and district courts could force the government to clarify sensitive national and operational security concerns and to force the court to face serious penalties, Deputy Attorney General Drew Ensign wrote in the Court of Appeal.
“This court should also immediately reassign this case to a judge in another district court, taking into account the very unusual and inappropriate procedures. For example, it should establish a class action litigation involving members of designated foreign terrorist organizations within 18 hours, without a briefing from the government adopted in previous district court cases,” Ensign wrote.
The Court of Appeals has not yet governed Ensign’s request.
