A federal judge found probable cause that the Trump administration acted with contempt of court in violating his order to immediately halt deportations of Venezuelans suspected of being gang members.

US District Judge James Boasberg issued an order Wednesday saying that officials acted in “willful disregard” of his verbal order on March 15 to turn around planes carrying Venezuelans now held in a notorious prison in El Salvador. Boasberg said at a court hearing on April 3 that “the government acted in bad faith throughout that day.”

  • ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca
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    3 days ago

    Depends on the type of contempt charge. Legal Eagle compares the types in a video on this case.

    tl;dw

    • Civil Contempt (coercive) - incremental fines or jail time until the charged follows an order.
    • Civil Contempt (compensatory) - a fine paid to someone who was wronged by ignoring a court order
    • Criminal Contempt (direct) - jail time meant as punishment for directly disobeying a judge while court is in session
    • Criminal Contempt (indirect) - jail time meant as punishment for disobeying a judge while court isn’t in session.

    Criminal contempt can be pardoned and Trump has pardoned it before. Civil contempt cannot be pardoned but it only lasts until an order is followed.

    Enforcing a contempt ruling is the next issue. Normally a US marshal would enforce it but they technically answer to the Attorney General, who answers to Trump, who could order them not to listen to the judge or be fired. A court could theoretically deputize someone to enforce the order directly, but that has never happened and people could just not recognize the authority of the deputized officer.