Trump’s pushback on judges challenges U.S. system of checks and balances

Geoff Bennett:

President Trump escalated his fight with the federal courts today, as the president called for the impeachment of the federal judge who ordered a halt to the deportations of hundreds of Venezuelan migrants.

Mr. Trump's threat comes after Judge James Boasberg scolded the DOJ for failing to answer questions about the deportations of alleged gang members. Rallying behind the president, Attorney General Pam Bondi said the DOJ would look into taking action against the judge.

Pam Bondi (R), U.S. Attorney General Nominee: He's attempting to meddle in national security and foreign affairs, and he can't do it. What he's done is an intrusion the president's authority. This one federal judge, again, thinks he can control foreign policy for the entire country, and he cannot. And, right now, we're evaluating our options.

Question:

OK, so you may — the administration may continue doing these flights?

Pam Bondi:

Absolutely. These are foreign terrorists. The president has identified them and designated them as such, and we will continue to follow the Alien Enemies Act.

Geoff Bennett:

Our White House correspondent, Laura Barron-Lopez, has been covering the latest and joins us now.

So let's pick up there, Laura. What did the Justice Department say today in their response, their filing to the judge, Judge Boasberg?

Laura Barron-Lopez:

So — yes, so, at the heart of this, Geoff, Judge Boasberg is trying to figure out if the Trump administration violated his weekend order to turn planes around that deported migrants under Trump's use of this centuries-old Alien Enemies Act.

And so, in the filing today, the Trump administration essentially argued that only — that they only had to follow a written order from the judge, not a verbal one that came at least an hour earlier. And they said in their filing that the flights in question left U.S. airspace, and so the occupants were removed before the written order was ever issued.

Now, I talked to a number of trial lawyers who essentially said that a verbal order is just as binding as a written order and that they don't think that those arguments by the administration are going to succeed. And the administration also called Judge Boasberg's verbal order not enforceable.

This did not satisfy Judge Boasberg. He ordered the Justice Department to submit a seal declaration by noon tomorrow providing details about when the planes took off, how they took off, and he's essentially skeptical of the government's arguments to date.

Geoff Bennett:

So the DOJ over the last 24 hours, as I understand it, has issued a number of sworn statements. So what was revealed in that?

Laura Barron-Lopez:

In one filing last night, an ICE official said that the government — quote — "carefully vetted" the migrants to ensure that they were in fact members of the Tren de Aragua gang, the Venezuelan gang, but the ICE official also said that many of these Venezuelan nationals deported do not have criminal records and that the government lacks — quote — "specific information' about a number of these cases.

I spoke to the ACLU's Lee Gelernt, who is a lead attorney in this case. And he said that, on the merits, they're making two arguments, which is that the president cannot use a wartime authority in peacetime against a gang and also that they have to give due process to these migrants, so they can dispute the allegations that they are gang members.

Geoff Bennett:

And Republicans are increasingly calling for the impeachment of federal judges over their rulings that they disagree with. President Trump has targeted judges in the past. He's doing it again.

Bring us up to speed.

Laura Barron-Lopez:

So, Elon Musk and President Trump ratcheted up the attack specifically on Judge Boasberg today, and President Trump called Boasberg a troublemaker and an agitator and he said that this judge, like many of the crooked judges he's forced to appear before, should be impeached.

And so, in a rare move in response to that, Chief Justice John Roberts of the Supreme Court responded with this short two-line statement reminding the president about the rule of law, saying — quote — "For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose."

So that is not normal for the chief justice to weigh in like that, Geoff.

Geoff Bennett:

I know you have been speaking with legal experts all day. I mean, what more could the courts do to compel the administration to comply?

Laura Barron-Lopez:

I spoke to Alex Nowrasteh. He's the vice president and an immigration policy expert at Cato Institute, and he said there are two main tools that the judiciary can use to hold the administration accountable.

Alex Nowrasteh, Cato Institute:

Courts have the ability to sanction government employees who ignore their orders, both criminally and in civil procedures.

I have little doubt that the federal judiciary will stick up for itself and will wield all of its power necessary to defend its rightful, lawful, and legal constitutional authority to put checks, to oversee the actions of the president of the United States and make sure they comport with the law.

Laura Barron-Lopez:

Like Alex of Cato Institute, multiple lawyers that I talked to said that the next step for a judge like Judge Boasberg would be to hold a government official within the Trump administration in contempt of court.

And the question is whether that's criminal contempt, which would have to likely be enforced by the Justice Department or a civil financial violation.

Geoff Bennett:

On another front, Laura, the administration is moving to reinstate some 25,000 federal workers who were fired. Is that right?

Laura Barron-Lopez:

That's right.

So in response to a federal court order last week saying that the firings of federal workers across 18 agencies was illegal, the administration is working right now to reinstate workers across the board, those 25,000. They're putting them right now on administrative leave and those workers are being told that they will have back pay.

So some of them have returned to full-time work. Some of them are still waiting for more information.

Geoff Bennett:

And there's some news involving USAID.

Laura Barron-Lopez:

Yes, that's right.

So a federal judge today ruled that the — Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency's actions to permanently shut down USAID were likely — that they likely violated the Constitution — quote — "in multiple ways," including that Elon Musk potentially violated the Appointments Clause.

And so the judge ordered, this judge out of Maryland ordered DOGE to reinstate e-mail access, payment systems for current workers. And they said that Musk and his team cannot take any further actions to dismantle USAID without an official current agency head saying that this is OK to do.

And so Musk and DOGE have to show the federal court that they are complying within seven days. The big takeaway here, though, Geoff, is that the judge hinted in his ruling that Musk has no constitutional authority to do everything that he is currently doing, even beyond USAID.

So that could potentially mean similar rulings from other judges.

Geoff Bennett:

We will see what comes of it.

Laura Barron-Lopez, our thanks to you, as always. Busy day.

Laura Barron-Lopez:

Thank you.