Summary
A federal judge criticized a Trump administration Justice Department lawyer who claimed they didn’t have to follow the judge’s oral order blocking deportations to El Salvador because it wasn’t in writing.
Judge Boasberg questioned why the administration ignored his directive to return immigrants to the US. The DOJ lawyer repeatedly refused to provide information about the deportations, citing “national security concerns.”
Frustrated, Boasberg ordered sworn declarations explaining what happened, quipping that he would issue a written order “since apparently my verbal orders don’t seem to carry much weight.”
It was disregarded because it was a vocal demand when the criminals were already halfway to their destination. If we allowed a federal judge to say “wait, don’t do that!” and express vocally their outrage, to the POTUS every time they disagreed, there would be no point in having a person voted as President.
Since when is a judge’s verbal order not legally binding?
The whole point of judiciary is to resolve damages and it’s actually really important that they can issue orders quickly to prevent “irreversible damages”, courts use injunctions all the time even before coming to any kind of decision in order to give time for due process to happen. Especially when there is possibility of harm coming to an individual.
You do realize this happens all the time, right? Death row inmates can be granted clemency literally while they’re strapped to the gurney. It’s literally a case of the judge, governor, POTUS, whoever saying “WAIT, DON’T DO THAT!”. And yes, this includes the judge verbally giving instructions and holding off the proceedings until a written order can be drafted.
There was nothing stopping them from turning that plane around.