A federal appeals court on Friday denied a request to reconsider an earlier decision that blocked a federal judge from investigating whether the Trump administration Officials were in contempt for allegedly violating a court order when they deported hundreds of suspected gang members to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act in March.
The decision will allow Judge James Boasberg to attempt to proceed with the early stages of the contempt process, including requesting evidence from the Trump administration about the decision not to turn around a plane bound for El Salvador after he ordered its return.
In a statement written by three majority justices, the court described Boasberg’s actions as “a measured and essential response to what he reasonably perceived to be shocking conduct by the Executive Branch.”
“The district court has full discretion to set a new deadline for the submission of the information it sought regarding the likely contempt it identified or to otherwise proceed within its sound discretion,” the ruling says. “For its part, the government will have a full opportunity, at the appropriate time, to raise any defense it may have. If it is dissatisfied with any appealable order that the district court may make, it will have the opportunity to request a review through the ordinary process. This is how our justice system is designed to work.”
On Monday, Boasberg said the parties will discuss at a hearing Wednesday how to proceed with the court’s contempt investigation.
In the time between Boasberg’s original order and Friday’s decision, a whistleblower came forward to allege that the Trump administration deliberately planned to defy Boasberg’s order. That new context could inform how Boasberg proceeds with the case.
Chief Judge James Boasberg, chief judge of the U.S. District Court, arrives at the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse, for the U.S. District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, in Washington, Nov. 3, 2025.
Saúl Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
“The facts recounted by the district court raise serious concerns about the rule of law. Obedience to court orders is vital for the judiciary to fulfill its constitutionally assigned role. Court orders are not suggestions; they are binding orders that the Executive Branch, no less than any other party, must obey,” the ruling says.
Lee Gelernt, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, told ABC News that the ruling will allow the group to proceed before Boasberg.
“And now we have more evidence that the government deliberately violated the court’s order not to deliver the Venezuelans to El Salvador,” Gelernt said.
A prison officer patrols in front of a door at the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in Tecoluca, San Vicente, El Salvador, on April 4, 2025.
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In March, the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Law (an 18th century wartime authority used to expel non-citizens with little or no due process) to deport two planeloads of suspected immigrant gang members to the CECOT megaprison in El Salvador, arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a “hybrid criminal state” that is invading the United States.
Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order and ordered the planes to be returned, but Justice Department lawyers said their oral instructions ordering the flight to be returned were flawed and that the deportations proceeded as planned.
Boasberg later sought contempt procedure against the government for deliberately defying its order.
