The former head of the Bush administration’s lawyer has warned the White House not to start ignoring court orders in its position against President Donald Trump’s deportation service under the alien enemy laws.
John Yu, a well-known law professor at Berkeley, told Fox News Digital in an interview Tuesday.
More than a dozen injunctions have been imposed to block Trump policies across the country at least temporarily, including his deportation, birthright citizenship reform and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The president’s Republican allies have accused “activist judges” of trying to override executives for inappropriate violations of comparable branches of government.
Yoo, who previously served as deputy aide in the Department of Justice (DOJ) General Counsel Office during his first term in President George W. Bush, said such a fight between the executive officer and the judicial department could threaten the entire legal system.
“In our history, the president has only refused to carry out a judicial order, and that was Abraham Lincoln at the start of the civil war,” Yu said. “If the president has to comply with judicial orders, it should almost always happen only when the state’s existence is at risk, as it will take the judiciary from the main means of implementing their decisions.”
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President Donald Trump, left, US District Judge James Boasberg. (Getty Images)
“If the courts can’t make reliable decisions, our legal system won’t work. If our legal system doesn’t work, the country is in a really bad state,” he added.
The White House has repeatedly said it would not comply with legal court orders.
US District Judge James Boasberg issued an emergency order on March 15th to suspend deportation flights for suspected gang members for 14 days.
The Trump administration pointed out that the judge’s written order was issued after two planes that were allegedly in the air, with gang members already in the air, and at that point it was too late to turn the plane. The third plane, where the first two took off, did not carry alien enemy laws, the administration said.
“As I said from the podium, as I continue, all flights subject to the written orders of the judge took off before the orders were pushed out in court, and the President is under his authority under his authority to make these decisions.”
“And I think it’s awful that a single district judge is trying to tell the President of the United States that they cannot banish us from our soil, especially when it comes to designated foreign terrorists.”
Yoo served with the Department of Justice during his first term as former President George W. Bush. (Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images)
The DOJ’s lawyers argued that Boasberg’s oral order to turn around the plane issued shortly before the written order was unenforceable.
Josh Blackman, a constitutional law professor at South Texas Law Houston, said the case was “complicated,” but said judges should warn that he should be careful not to overturn government authority over matters with the cooperation department.
“The judge apparently appears that the ACLU has presented an oral argument. The judge then issued an oral order with the DOJ’s lawyers on the line. However, the government could not make an argument. The judge also did not give the government time to gain time to attract a timely appeal.”
“As a result, the judges are now asking why the government has not turned planes around in international waters. Things aren’t that simple. The judges have lost sight of the fact that they are comparable and poorly superior branches of government.”
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Yoo also said the case was complicated and said the parties were in unknown territory, but noted that the oral order was valid, despite the very different circumstances.
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“It’s a little cute, it looks like it’s happened,” he said Tuesday about the oral order debate. “But maybe that’s the case.”
Yoo said judges often make one-word sentences, including denying the movement, as seen in written transcripts of procedures, but he made it clear that the situation is very different.
“This is an unprecedented exercise of jurisdiction in response to the president’s unprecedented claims of authority,” Yu said.
Boasberg is currently considering whether the Trump administration violated his court order. Friday’s hearing on whether to maintain the ban quickly became controversial when the judge accused DOJ’s lawyers of being “disrespectful” in a court application. The administration said Boasberg is engaged in a “judicial fishing expedition,” according to Reuters.
Elizabeth Elkind is the main reporter of Fox News Digital’s reporting in the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen on Daily Mail and CBS News.
Follow me on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to Elizabeth.elkind@fox.com
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