The New Yorker:

In its conflict with a federal judge, the Justice Department claims to be complying with his orders while provoking a constitutional crisis.

By Ruth Marcus

We are witnessing a constitutional system on the brink. The crisis started on Saturday, when James E. Boasberg, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, issued an order that could hardly have been clearer: he told the Trump Administration to halt the imminent deportation of immigrants alleged to be Venezuelan gang members.

“You shall inform your clients of this immediately, and that any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States—but those people need to be returned to the United States,” Boasberg instructed the Justice Department lawyer Drew Ensign over Zoom, a hearing called so hurriedly that the judge, away for the weekend without having packed his robes, apologized at the start for his informal dress.

“However that’s accomplished, whether turning around a plane or not embarking anyone on the plane . . . I leave to you,” Boasberg said. “But this is something that you need to make sure is complied with immediately.”

Federal judges are accustomed to being obeyed, but there is a new Administration in town, and it is dangerously and deliberately testing the limits of judicial power. As Boasberg was speaking, the planes were in the air; authorities had them continue on to El Salvador, which had agreed to jail the Venezuelans for a reported six million dollars.

“Oopsie . . . Too late,” the Salvadoran President, Nayib Bukele, posted on X the next morning, along with a laughing-tears emoji and a screenshot of a New York Post story about Boasberg’s order. Bukele was quickly retweeted by, among other Administration officials, Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

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