The Department of Justice has just asked the D.C. federal appeals court to intervene in a case challenging President Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act.

On Saturday, President Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to speed along deportations of violent gang members. A few hours later, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, an Obama appointee, ruled against it and tried to block a flight of over 200 dangerous illegal aliens from landing in El Salvador.

The judge’s ruling was ignored, with President Trump’s White House refusing to turn the flight — which was already outside the judge’s jurisdiction in international airspace — back around.

Now, in a letter addressed to the D.C. appellate court clerk Clifton Cislak, the DOJ has formally requested that this biased judge be removed from the case entirely.

Check it out:

Here’s the full text of the letter:

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Dear Mr. Cislak:
Pursuant to Rule 28(j), the Government provides urgent notice of developments
below. Yesterday, the Government provided a notice regarding its compliance with the district court’s temporary restraining orders (attached). Overnight, Plaintiffs responded (attached) and asked the district court to compel the Government to address operational details regarding flights
that removed aliens identified as associated with a designated foreign terrorist organization
(government’s response to same attached). The district court has now set an open, public hearing for 5pm Eastern and ordered that the “Government shall be prepared to provide answers to the questions raised by Plaintiffs.” All of the questions at issue relate to past actions, not prospective compliance with the court’s orders (about which Plaintiffs have raised no issue).

That development escalates the stakes of the district court’s inappropriate exercise of
jurisdiction and the risks that the district court may force the government to disclose sensitive national security and operational security concerns or face significant penalties from the court. The Government cannot—and will not—be forced to answer sensitive questions of national security and foreign relations in a rushed posture without orderly briefing and a showing that these
questions are somehow material to a live issue. Answering them, especially on the proposed timetable, is flagrantly improper and presents grave risks to the conduct of the Government in areas wholly unsuited to micromanagement supervision by a district court judge.

The district court’s hasty public inquiry into these sensitive national security matters—with
no contemplated protections against disclosure of operational details—underscores the urgency of immediate relief from this Court, including an immediate administrative stay that would allow further briefing to unfold in an orderly and appropriate manner and prevents the district court from further efforts to interfere with President Trump’s core Article II authorities, including the conduct of foreign policy. This Court should also immediately reassign this case to another district court
judge given the highly unusual and improper procedures—e.g. certification of a class action involving members of a designated foreign terrorist organization in less than 18 hours with no discovery and no briefing from the Government—that have been employed in the district court proceedings to date.

Respectfully submitted,
Drew C. Ensign
DREW C. ENSIGN
Deputy Assistant Attorney General

The letter was sent ahead of a hearing on the case, in which Judge Boasberg gave the DOJ a deadline of Tuesday to answer several questions about the deportation of violent illegal aliens.

Here are the questions:

1) How many planes departed US on Saturday carrying anyone based on Proclamation;
2) How many people in each category;
3) What foreign country/countries did they landed;
4) Time took off & wear; time you contend left US air space; what time landed in each country; what time transferred into that countries custody

The Hill reported:

The Trump administration is pushing to change the judge overseeing a challenge to the president’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to carry out swift deportations.

The Justice Department made the request in a new filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, where the administration is appealing U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s Saturday order blocking the administration’s plan nationwide.

“This Court should also immediately reassign this case to another district court judge given the highly unusual and improper procedures — e.g. certification of a class action involving members of a designated foreign terrorist organization in less than 18 hours with no discovery and no briefing from the Government — that have been employed in the district court proceedings to date,” wrote Drew Ensign, deputy assistant attorney general for immigration litigation.

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The request came ahead of a 5 p.m. EDT hearing in the case, where Boasberg is set to consider whether the administration violated his court order by sending planes to El Salvador on Saturday evening. Boasberg is an appointee of former President Obama.

Boasberg on Monday denied the government’s motion to cancel the hearing.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
 

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