Jeb Boasberg needs to step down as chief judge.
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) August 8, 2025
He has embarrassed himself and inflicted a permanent (and well deserved I might add) black eye on the federal court system in our nation's capital.
Republicans in Washington must demand his resignation or pursue impeachment.… https://t.co/eKHxA1zAIf
GREAT news!! Thread on @realDonaldTrump win against Boasberg! https://t.co/BG1Fr7grVO
— Sidney Powell 🇺🇸 Attorney, Author, Gladiator (@SidneyPowell1) August 8, 2025
Judge Katsas and Judge Rao conclude that the government has satisfied the stringent requirements for a writ of mandamus. The Court therefore grants the government's petition for mandamus and vacates the district court's probable-cause order. Judge Pillard dissents from the grant of mandamus and the vacatur.
The district court's order is a "clear abuse of discretion" that warrants the "drastic and extraordinary remedy" of mandamus. Cheney v. U.S. Dist. Ct. for D.C., 542 U.S. 367, 380 (2004) (cleaned up). When an injunction has been vacated, as occurred here, a district court loses the authority to coerce compliance with the order. See Dep't of Homeland Sec. v. D.V.D., No. 24A1153, 2025 WL 1832186, at *1 (U.S. July 3, 2025) (holding that a district court cannot use a remedial order "to enforce injunction an injunction that our stay rendered unenforceable"). Punishment through criminal contempt might still be available in these circumstances, but the district court cannot use the threat of such punishment as a backdoor to obtain compliance with a vacated and therefore unenforceable TRO.
The district court's abuse of the contempt power is especially egregious because contempt proceedings against senior Executive Branch officials carry profound "separation of power[s] overtones" that demand the most "sensitive judicial scrutiny." In re Att'y Gen. of U.S., 596 F.2d 58, 64 (2d Cir. 1979). Lacking the authority to compel obedience, the district court nonetheless pressured the government to take custody of alleged alien enemies held in El Salvador. This intrusion on the President's foreign affairs authority "constitute[s] an unwarranted impairment of another branch in the performance of its constitutional duties." Cheney, 542 U.S. at 390. Because the order exceeds the court's authority and amounts to a clear abuse of discretion, mandamus is appropriate. ~Judge Rao
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