Trump Officials Test Limits of Courts’ Power to Constrain Their Actions

The Trump administration is testing the limits of the federal court system to constrain the president, brushing aside court orders, harshly attacking judges and, in some cases, finding ways to circumvent adverse rulings.

The showdown reached a crescendo over the weekend when officials appeared to flout a judge’s order that barred the President Donald Trump from using a wartime authority for deportations and said the government should immediately turn around any flights containing such deportees. {snip}

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted Monday that the administration acted within “the bounds of immigration law in this country” {snip}

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Several legal experts said the deportation flights mark a dramatic — and troubling — escalation in the Trump administration’s pushback against the courts, which has grown more aggressive in recent weeks as the administration faces a deluge of lawsuits seeking to restrain it.

White House “border czar” Tom Homan defended the flights, telling Fox News on Monday that Boasberg’s orders came too late for the court to have jurisdiction over the matter. “We’re not stopping,” Homan said, echoing the defiance other administration officials showed on social media Sunday. “I don’t care what the judges think.”

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Michael J. Gerhardt, a professor of constitutional law at University of North Carolina Law School, said the administration’s response to the judge’s order is probably the beginning of the first assertions of judicial defiance by Trump.

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Trump secretly signed a proclamation Friday invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport, without the normal due process, Venezuelans over 14 who the government says belong to the Tren de Aragua gang. On Saturday, five Venezuelans filed suit to block their deportation under the order, and Boasberg issued a stay on their removal.

During an emergency hearing Saturday night, Boasberg extended his order to block the deportation of all Venezuelan migrants using Alien Enemies Act authority, which had only previously been invoked during wartime — including to imprison tens of thousands of Japanese Americans during World War II.

The judge ordered any planes carrying people being deported under the act to return to the United States.

By then, two flights had already taken off containing deportees. A third left after he issued his ruling, according to a timeline assembled by The Washington Post. All three flights landed after Boasberg gave his order to turn around.

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While some of the White House public statements were viewed by Trump critics as flippant and defiant of the judge’s ruling, administration officials consulted with lawyers and top leaders of the National Security Council, State Department, Department of Defense, DHS and other entities about messaging ahead of making some of their social media posts and remarks, the second White House official said.

Top White House advisers say they are confident in the actions they’re taking and believe Trump’s team is being sufficiently cognizant of the forthcoming court fights.

“I say this with no disrespect to any of the previous administrations, and I’m trying to phrase this as delicately as possible,” the second official said. “This White House has the balls to do it.”

Plaintiffs in other cases have also accused the Trump administration of violating court orders.

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The Trump administration has faced initial setbacks in court over its blitz of executive orders, which have triggered more than 120 lawsuits. Judges have blocked many of the administration’s most high-profile efforts, including ending birthright citizenship, firing thousands of probationary workers and dismantling some federal diversity initiatives.

Trump officials have chafed at those rulings, particularly nationwide injunctions issued by federal district court judges. Vice President JD Vance has said judges “aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” while Elon Musk has called for the impeachment of judges.

The administration also railed against temporary restraining orders in a recent Supreme Court filing that asks the justices to allow Trump’s ban on birthright citizenship in some states, leaving his order paused by lower courts only in states that have specifically sued to stop it.

“This Court should declare that enough is enough before district courts’ burgeoning reliance on universal injunctions becomes further entrenched,” acting solicitor general Sarah Harris wrote. “Years of experience have shown that the Executive Branch cannot properly perform its functions if any judge anywhere can enjoin every presidential action everywhere.”