A federal appeals court panel on Tuesday ordered U.S. District Judge James Boasberg to end his contempt investigation of the Trump administration, shutting down a proceeding tied to last year’s disputed flights carrying Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador.
The divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the administration has a clear and indisputable right to have the contempt case terminated. Circuit Judge Neomi Rao wrote the majority opinion, with Judge Justin Walker concurring and Judge J. Michelle Childs dissenting.
The dispute began on March 15, 2025, when two planes transporting Venezuelan migrants from the United States to El Salvador were already in the air as Boasberg ordered the administration to turn them around. In an April 16, 2025 order, Boasberg said he had given the administration ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions and concluded that none of their responses had been satisfactory.
Rao said the legal error at the heart of the contempt proceedings showed why further district court investigation would be an abuse of discretion. She wrote that criminal contempt is available only when a court order is clear and specific, and said Boasberg’s March 2025 order did not clearly and specifically bar the government from transferring plaintiffs into Salvadoran custody.
The ruling lands in a case already wrapped in political conflict. Trump has called for Boasberg’s impeachment, while the Justice Department last year filed a misconduct complaint accusing the judge of making improper public comments about Trump and his administration. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts publicly rejected the impeachment calls.
The appeals court decision leaves Boasberg without the contempt path he had been pursuing and sets a clear boundary for how far the district court can go in policing the administration’s response to the failed turn-around order. The fight over the flights is no longer about whether the judge may keep pressing the contempt case; the panel said he may not.
