'Path of lawlessness': Reagan-appointed judge buries Trump DOJ in scathing ruling
Over the weekend, a Justice Department attorney was put on administrative leave after acknowledging in court that he'd never been given a "satisfactory" answer for why the U.S. government couldn't return a wrongfully deported immigrant from Venezuela who had been residing in Maryland. Now, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals is scolding the DOJ's behavior in a new ruling.
In a unanimous decision on Monday, the court denied President Donald Trump's administration's efforts to resist returning Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States by midnight on Monday, wrote Politico legal reporter Kyle Cheney on X.
J. Harvie Wilkinson III, an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan, was particularly scathing in his reaction to government claims that it could not possibly bring Garcia back to the United States despite acknowledging his wrongful deportation.
"The government rightfully concedes that it was an 'error' and a 'mistake' to ignore this process," Wilkinson wrote. "And, if it is truly a mistake, one would also expect the government to do what it can to rectify it. Most of us attempt to undo, to the extent that we can, the mistakes that we have made. But, to the best of my knowledge, the government has not made the attempt here. The facts of this case thus present the potential for a disturbing loophole: namely that the government could whisk individuals to foreign prisons in violation of court orders and then contend, invoking its Article II powers, that it is no longer their custodian, and there is nothing that can be done. It takes no small amount of imagination to understand that this is a path of perfect lawlessness, one that courts cannot condone."
The court also scolded the government for penalizing its own attorney, whom it charged was being targeted for his "candor to the court."
"Of note, in response to the candid responses by the Government attorney to the district court’s inquiry, that attorney has been put on administrative leave, ostensibly for lack of 'zealous[] advocacy,'" the ruling said in a footnote, citing the CNN report about the DOJ lawyer.