MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
The Trump administration, quote, "demonstrated willful disregard for a court's order and is likely in criminal contempt." That is what U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled today here in Washington. Boasberg has been trying to determine if the government purposely ignored him last month when he told it to turn back two airplanes - planes carrying Venezuelan migrants to a prison in El Salvador. NPR's Adrian Florido is here. Hi, Adrian.
ADRIAN FLORIDO, BYLINE: Hi, Mary Louise.
KELLY: What else did Judge Boasberg say in his ruling?
FLORIDO: Well, he said that he found that, in fact, government officials did ignore his order to turn those planes around. A little context, Mary Louise - on March 15, President Trump announced that he'd invoked the wartime Alien Enemies Act of 1798 so he could quickly deport members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua without hearings. Later that day, officials in Texas loaded dozens of men into two airplanes.
The ACLU got wind of the government's plans and sued. During an emergency hearing - excuse me - in D.C. that evening, Judge Boasberg asked government lawyers if the planes had already taken off and said, if they had, they needed to turn around. The planes did not turn back, though. They landed in El Salvador, and that country's president locked the men up.
Boasberg in his ruling today said the government could have returned those planes because they took off during his hearing, and they landed after he'd issued his order. He wrote that - and I'm quoting here - "the Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders." And he said that he had probable cause to find the administration in criminal contempt.
KELLY: Criminal contempt - so what does that mean when that's applied to the federal government?
FLORIDO: Well, it depends on what the government does next. Boasberg gave it until next Wednesday to do one of two things. It can show him how it's working to correct its violation, and he said that the most obvious way would be to reassert custody of the men it deported, so they can challenge their deportations in federal courts. They are still being held in that Salvadoran prison and many of their families have flatly denied that they are gang members.
If the government chooses not to do that, Boasberg said, then he said it needs to tell him the names of the specific government officials who ignored his order. He said he will hold contempt hearings and, if necessary, appoint a lawyer to criminally prosecute them for contempt, and they could face fines or prison.
KELLY: So how are both sides responding to this ruling? Start with the lawyers who brought this case.
FLORIDO: Well, they're from the ACLU and from a group called Democracy Forward. This is Democracy Forward's attorney in this case, Skye Perryman.
SKYE PERRYMAN: This ruling - it's clear that we've seen the government has acted in blatant disregard for the judiciary, treating court orders as if they are optional. And that's not how our systems of checks and balances works. This really is something that should concern every single person in the country.
FLORIDO: She said that her team will continue working through the courts to ensure that everyone in the U.S. gets due process. On the other side, a White House spokesman said the government will appeal today's ruling. He said the president is committed to ensuring that, quote, "criminal illegal migrants are no longer a threat to Americans." The Department of Justice also issued a statement calling Boasberg's ruling a judicial power grab.
KELLY: Adrian, this is, of course, not the only case in which federal courts are trying to force the Trump administration to obey court order. Zoom out. Give us the bigger picture.
FLORIDO: Well, members of the Trump administration have said they're not going to let courts get in their way of carrying out the president's priorities, and today is the first time a judge has clearly said they will be punished for not obeying courts. If they still refuse, that is where legal experts say that we will have a full-blown constitutional crisis where the balance of powers between the executive and judicial branches may not hold.
KELLY: NPR's Adrian Florido, thanks for your reporting.
FLORIDO: Thank you, Mary Louise. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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