The job of federal district court judge is a prestigious lifetime appointment. But even in normal times, it is a lonely job, because judges’ rulings are theirs and theirs alone.
These are not normal times. Look at District Judge James Boasberg, an Obama appointee who is the chief judge of the federal district court in D.C. He presides over a lawsuit challenging the mass deportation of Venezuelan nationals in U.S. custody to El Salvador. The Trump administration, claiming that the Venezuelans are gang members, issued a proclamation deporting them pursuant to the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
In response to an emergency lawsuit on behalf of the deportees, Judge Boasberg ordered the government to delay the deportation flights until he could rule whether the deportations were authorized by the act, which has been invoked just three times in American history and only in wartime.
Instead, the Trump administration set up a constitutional showdown by flying the Venezuelans to El Salvador in apparent defiance of Boasberg’s order. Trump called the judge a “radical left lunatic” and demanded his impeachment, while MAGA allies attacked his family.
In a rare rebuke, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts pointed out that it has been recognized for centuries “that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.” Trump again suggested impeachment, in keeping with his style of head-butting until his opponent backs down and Trump owns him.
Things are not going that way. Instead, Trump, the bully in the bully pulpit, is in a federal judge’s wheelhouse, where obedience to court orders and accountability for violating them is a core principle.
Boasberg called the use of the Alien Enemies Act “incredibly troublesome” and suggested that the Trump administration “rushed” to get the deportees out of the country to evade judicial review. He has relentlessly pressed the government attorneys to explain whether the deportation flights took off after he issued his order: “I will get to the bottom of whether they violated my order — who ordered this and what the consequences will be.”
Boasberg is especially isolated because the ordinarily robust restraints of checks and balances in a three-branch government are failing now that the Republican-controlled Congress has all but left the field. Trump has also intimidated Big Law firms such as Paul Weiss, who might have mounted vigorous lobbying campaigns to defend the rule of law.
Consider another isolated federal district judge: Frank Johnson, an Eisenhower appointee in Alabama during the Civil Rights Era. Johnson desegregated the state’s schools and ordered authorities to allow the 1965 Civil Rights march from Selma to Montgomery. He endured death threats, social ostracism and for 15 years needed round-the-clock protection by U.S. Marshals — but never backed down.
For an avatar, look to Hollywood’s Will Kane, the marshal of the town of Hadleyville, played by Gary Cooper in the great western “High Noon.” The murderer whom Kane once jailed has been pardoned and is on his way to kill him, arriving on the noon train where his gang waits at the station. While the frightened townspeople hide, Kane’s Quaker wife Amy (Grace Kelly) pleads with her husband, “Don’t try to be a hero.” He replies, “I’m not trying to be a hero.” Kane, with unexpected help from Amy, kills the murderer and his gang.
As the townspeople emerge from their homes, Kane looks at them contemptuously, throws down his badge and leaves town with Amy.
Boasberg isn’t trying to be a hero. He’s only doing a tough job. And we shouldn’t be hiding in our homes.
Gregory J. Wallance was a federal prosecutor in the Carter and Reagan administrations and a member of the ABSCAM prosecution team, which convicted a U.S. senator and six representatives of bribery. He is the author of “Into Siberia: George Kennan’s Epic Journey Through the Brutal, Frozen Heart of Russia.”
