The Most Important Judge in America |
Judge James Boasberg at the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington, D.C., in 2023. Photo: Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post/Getty Images |
The Saturday that Judge James Boasberg, the chief judge of the federal district court in Washington, D.C., was assigned the case challenging Donald Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, he was not dressed for the occasion. The case had been filed alongside an urgent motion to prevent the deportation of five people their lawyers feared would soon be disappeared to El Salvador. At an emergency hearing conducted on Zoom that evening, convened to figure out whether judicial intervention was needed to prevent any wrongful deportations, Boasberg had to apologize to everyone present. “I went away for the weekend and brought with me neither a robe nor tie nor appropriate shirt, so thank you all for being appropriately attired and hope you will forgive my casual ones,” he said.
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Required Reading for Political Compulsives |
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