The Trump administration scored a major legal victory against a rogue judge earlier this week. But the win raises a far greater issue that most Republicans would like to sweep under the rug.
The victory in question happened on Tuesday, when the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals terminated contempt proceedings launched by Chief District Judge James Boasberg against government officials involved in the deportation of suspected Venezuelan gang members. In her scathing opinion, Judge Neomi Rao excoriated the Obama-appointed Boasberg for his “clear abuse of discretion” and assuming an “improper jurisdiction antagonistic to the Executive Branch.”
While the ruling was undoubtedly a win for the president and his immigration agenda, it raises an important question Republicans don’t want voters asking. That is, why have they continued to allow Boasberg to abuse his authority with zero consequences up to this point?
After all, it’s not a new phenomenon that the anti-Trump Boasberg boasts a track record of egregious conduct on the bench. Not just in his handling of cases involving the Trump administration, but in matters pertaining to Democrat lawfare against Trump and other Republicans.
It was Boasberg who played a key role in Jack Smith’s Arctic Frost probe, which ultimately became his elector lawfare campaign against the then-former president and his allies. As The Federalist previously reported, the Obama appointee signed off on efforts by Smith’s team to seize the phone records of GOP members of Congress and not inform them of such subpoenas.
Federalist Senior Legal Correspondent Margot Cleveland observed in her recent testimony before a Senate subcommittee that Smith’s team “apparently” didn’t inform Boasberg of who they were targeting with the subpoenas. She noted, however, that despite this purported stance, Boasberg has thus far declined to order Smith and his team to “show cause for why they should not be held in contempt for concealing that members of Congress were the subpoena targets.”
“This fact should not be ignored — if you are to believe Smith and the Administrative Office of the Courts’ testimony that Judge Boasberg did not know your identities, then it makes absolutely no sense that Boasberg would not enter a show cause order to hold Smith accountable for violating your rights, given Judge Boasberg’s nearly year-long crusade to hold a member of the Trump Administration in contempt,” Cleveland told the senators.
And yet, despite this trail of abuse on the bench, Republicans have done virtually nothing to punish Boasberg. In fact, when opportunities have arisen to do so, many elected GOPers have sided with Democrats to oppose them.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, introduced a bill amendment in January that sought to slash the budgets of the D.C. District Court (where Boasberg is based) and Court of Appeals by 20 percent. The measure would also have ensured that “[n]one of the funds made available” by the bill would “be obligated or expended for the salary and expenses” for Boasberg’s staff and that of Maryland District Judge Deborah Boardman, who gave a lenient sentence to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s attempted assassin — seemingly based on her affinity for “trans” ideology.
But rather than advance the measure, 46 House Republicans joined Democrats in defeating it.
The House GOP has also sat on articles of impeachment against Boasberg filed by Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas. Speaker Mike Johnson did not respond to The Federalist’s prior comment request on whether the House would initiate such proceedings against the Obama appointee.
[READ: We Still Have An Imperial Judiciary, Yet Trump Continues To Exercise Extreme Restraint]
Relying on higher courts to correct the abusive actions of rogue judges is not an excuse for Republicans to abdicate their responsibility to judicial oversight. Nor is it an effective long-term strategy that will prevent partisan actors like Boasberg from acting out in the future.
Only by exercising their constitutional authority over the federal courts can Republicans rein in the judicial activism subverting American governance. Until they find the courage to do so, the country will continue to be ruled by unelected lawyers in black robes.
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