Trump Action Archive

Supporting reports

• Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals denies Trump administration's appeal to halt lower court orders on wrongful deportation case; Judge Wilkinson warns of constitutional breakdown — A panel of judges on the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit denied the Trump administration's request to halt Judge Xinis's lower court rulings requiring compliance with orders to facilitate Kilmar Ábrego García's return from El Salvador. In a striking opinion, Judge Harvie Wilkinson, a Ronald Reagan appointee, warned of severe damage if the executive branch continued to defy the judiciary, writing that the branches "come too close to grinding irrevocably against one another" and that "the executive may succeed for a time in weakening the courts, but over time history will script the tragic gap between what was and all that might have been."

Supporting reports

• Judge Boasberg orders government not to deport men to CECOT; administration defies order — Judge James Boasberg issued an order prohibiting the government from deporting men to CECOT and instructing that if planes were already airborne, they be turned around. The administration proceeded with deportations despite the judicial order. On April 16, Boasberg issued an opinion concluding that probable cause exists to find the government in criminal contempt of court for defying his order.
• US District Judge James Boasberg finds probable cause of contempt against Trump administration for defying deportation halt orders — US District Judge James Boasberg found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in contempt of court for defying his orders to halt deportations. Boasberg outlined a series of escalating punitive actions he could take against Trump officials, though an appellate court has paused the contempt process while the administration appeals.