A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The Trump administration demonstrated, quote, "willful disregard" for a court order and is likely in criminal contempt.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
That's what U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled yesterday. He said the government ignored his order last month to turn back two planes carrying Venezuelan migrants to a prison in El Salvador. It's just one of the high-profile cases in which federal judges are trying to hold the Trump administration accountable for flouting judicial orders.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Adrian Florido joins us now. So tell us what the judge said in this ruling.
ADRIAN FLORIDO, BYLINE: Well, Judge Boasberg said that government officials could have obeyed his order to turn those planes around, but chose not to. A little context, A - on March 15, President Trump said he'd invoked the wartime Alien Enemies Act of 1798 so he could quickly deport members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua without hearings. That same day, officials in Texas loaded dozens of men onto two airplanes. The ACLU, though, found out what was happening and sued because it said these men needed to be allowed to challenge their deportations.
During an emergency hearing in D.C. that evening, Judge Boasberg told the government lawyers that if those planes had already left, they needed to turn them around. That didn't happen, though. The planes landed in El Salvador, and the country's president locked the men up. Boasberg, in his ruling yesterday, said the government could have returned the planes because they took off during his hearing. And he wrote that, quote, "the Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders."
MARTÍNEZ: OK. So then what does the ruling mean now for the Trump administration?
FLORIDO: Well, Boasberg gave the government till next week to do one of two things. He said it could, in his words, reassert custody of the men it deported so they can challenge their deportations in federal courts. They are still in that Salvadoran prison, and many of their families have denied that they are gang members. If the government chooses not to do that, though, Boasberg said, then he wants the names of the specific government officials who ignored his order. He said he will force them to testify. And if necessary, he will appoint a lawyer to criminally prosecute them for contempt, and they could face fines or prison.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. Well - so how is the White House responding?
FLORIDO: Well, the Justice Department called the ruling a judicial power grab and has appealed. A White House spokesman said the president is committed to ensuring that, quote, "criminal illegal migrants are no longer a threat to Americans." On the other side of this case, the ACLU and Democracy Forward - the two groups who brought it - are celebrating the ruling. This is Skye Perryman of Democracy Forward.
SKYE PERRYMAN: This ruling - it's clear that we've seen the government has acted in blatant disregard for the judiciary, treating court orders as if they are optional. And that's not how our systems of checks and balances works.
FLORIDO: She said her team will continue moving the case forward in court to ensure that everyone in the U.S., including immigrants, gets due process.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. And this is not the only case where judges are trying to force the Trump administration to obey court orders. A judge in Maryland also demanded an explanation for why it's ignoring her order to help bring back a man mistakenly sent to El Salvador despite having legal status. So what's the big picture here, Adrian?
FLORIDO: Well, members of the Trump administration, A, have said that they are not going to let courts get in their way of carrying out the president's priorities. Yesterday's ruling by Judge Boasberg, though, is the first time a judge has clearly said that government officials will be punished for not obeying the courts. If they still refuse, that is where legal experts say that we will have a full-blown constitutional crisis.
MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR's Adrian Florido. Thanks a lot.
FLORIDO: Thank you, A. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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