The Dictatorship
DOJ’s misconduct complaint dismissed against judge in Alien Enemies Act case
A federal judge dismissed a misconduct complaint filed by the Department of Justice against Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasbergwho oversaw a case related to the Alien Enemies Act case last year.
The complaintfiled by Attorney General Pam Bondi‘s office in July 2025, alleged that Boasberg, an Obama appointee, made “improper public comments” about President Donald Trump to Supreme Court Justice John Roberts and other federal judges “that have undermined the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.” The DOJ claimed that Boasberg made the comments at a semiannual judicial conference the previous March, where he warned about how Trump would “disregard rulings of federal courts” and trigger “a constitutional crisis.”
Boasberg previously ruled against Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to carry out his mass deportation plans. Last March, Boasberg imposed restrictions on the federal government from removing anyone under the law. Despite Boasberg’s order, the Department of Homeland Security removed more than 200 noncitizens from the U.S. to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
Boasberg’s efforts to pursue contempt proceedings against administration officials, related to questions about compliance with that order, have been on hold since mid-December.
In his newly released dismissal of the misconduct complaint, Jeffrey Sutton, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, said the DOJ failed to provide sufficient evidence of Boasberg’s supposedly prejudicial statements and noted that such conversations between judges are normal during this kind of event. Sutton’s decision was issued December 19.
“A key point of the Judicial Conference and the related meetings is to facilitate candid conversations about judicial administration among leaders of the federal judiciary about matters of common concern,” Sutton wrote. “In these settings, a judge’s expression of anxiety about executive-branch compliance with judicial orders, whether rightly feared or not, is not so far afield from customary topics at these meetings.”
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter and producer for MS NOW. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.