By Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. judge who temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from invoking wartime powers to deport migrants has for years handled high-stakes cases involving sensitive security or political issues – sometimes ruling in Trump’s favor.
U.S. District Judge James “Jeb” Boasberg, an appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama, is a central player in an unfolding conflict between the White House and the U.S. judicial system, which is handling dozens of cases that challenge the Trump administration’s actions.
Trump on Tuesday called for Boasberg to be impeached, prompting a rare rebuke from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. The Justice Department, in an unusual move, has also asked a federal appeals court to remove Boasberg from the case, accusing him of employing “highly unusual and improper procedures.”
Boasberg demanded answers from the Trump administration on Monday after questions arose over whether it had defied his earlier order on the migrant deportations to El Salvador.
Boasberg, chief judge of the federal District Court in Washington D.C., is known for his booming baritone voice and for peppering legal opinions with colorful language and pop culture references.
He cited a Star Trek reference to the Borg catchphrase “Resistance is futile” in an opinion he wrote that dismissed a lawsuit a Trump aide brought against the congressional committee that investigated the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
That is one of several Trump-related cases he has handled in the past. Boasberg was confirmed by the Senate in 2011 in a 96-0 vote.
In 2023, he ordered Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence to testify to a grand jury about Trump’s attempts to pressure him to thwart certification of Trump’s 2020 election defeat. Pence’s testimony formed a central part of the since-dismissed criminal case that accused Trump of trying to reverse his election loss.
In 2017, during Trump’s first term, Boasberg denied an effort by an advocacy organization to obtain Trump’s tax records, which he had successfully kept private.
Boasberg also dealt with issues surrounding Trump rival Hillary Clinton’s emails during her tenure as Secretary of State, an issue that dogged her 2016 campaign, ruling in some instances in favor of a conservative group that sought to make them public.
Boasberg is currently overseeing a landmark antitrust case the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is pursuing against Facebook owner Meta Platforms that is set to go to trial next month.
The judge has also served on a U.S. court that handles secret government surveillance requests aimed at suspected foreign intelligence threats within the United States. He ended his term as presiding judge on that court in 2021.
In 2012, he dismissed a lawsuit seeking to compel the Obama administration to release pictures and videos of the U.S. military operation that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.
Prior to his role on the federal bench, Boasberg served as a local judge and a prosecutor in Washington D.C., where he specialized in prosecuting murder cases in the U.S. capital.
Boasberg played a prosecutor in 2018 in a play written by former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy that depicts a criminal trial of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.”
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Additional reporting by Ted Hesson and Tom Hals; Editing by Andy Sullivan and Jamie Freed)
