With a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has denied President Donald Trump’s request to halt US District Judge James Boasberg’s decision that blocked his proclamation applying the Alien Enemies Act to support deportations of suspected members of a Venezuelan gang.
The Justice Department had urged the three-judge panel on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to immediately block Boasberg’s order, casting it as an intrusion on the president’s executive authority over national security.
Judges Karen Henderson and Patricia Millett opposed the administration’s request while Judge Justin Walker dissented.
In a concurrence, Henderson said that:
“the Executive’s burdens are comparatively modest compared to the plaintiffs’. Lifting the injunctions risks exiling plaintiffs to a land that is not their country of origin.”
Millett, meanwhile, praised the district court’s handling of the case and said:
“there is neither jurisdiction nor reason for this court to interfere at this very preliminary stage or to allow the government to singlehandedly moot the Plaintiffs’ claims by immediately removing them beyond the reach of their lawyers or the court.”
Walker’s dissent stated that:
“the government has … shown that the district court’s orders threaten irreparable harm to delicate negotiations with foreign powers on matters concerning national security.”
Republicans have criticized Boasberg as allegedly overstepping his power by questioning President Donald Trump’s national security authority.
The Trump administration could now seek emergency review from the Supreme Court, but the case is meanwhile progressing in Boasberg’s court.
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