TOMORROW, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 9:30 a.m. ET: Full Federal Appeals Court Hearing Over Whether Trump Officials Willfully Defied Court Order in Alien Enemies Act ChallengeÂ
Argument audio live stream can be found
WHAT:
The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear argument over the Trump administration’s March 2025 decision to invoke the wartime Alien Enemies Act to send more than 100 Venezuelan men from the United States to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador in defiance of D.C. District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg’s order to halt the removal flights. The ºìÐÓÊÓÆµ and ºìÐÓÊÓÆµ of D.C. are counsel in this case, J.G.G. v. Trump.
The hearing focuses on accountability — specifically, whether Trump officials will face consequences for openly defying a federal judge’s order. It will be en banc, meaning all 11 active judges will hear the argument — a procedure rarely used in the D.C. Circuit.
More than 200 former judges have filed an urging the court not to let the administration escape accountability. In opinions issued in connection with prior proceedings in this case, judges on the circuit have already that the government’s actions forming the basis of Judge Boasberg’s contempt inquiry raised “grave rule-of-law concerns.�
Last Friday, a panel of D.C. appellate judges heard argument on whether the men sent to CECOT are entitled to finally get hearings, either remotely or back in the United States, to show that they are not part of the Tren de Aragua gang and that their removal from the United States under the Alien Enemies Act without a hearing was illegal. Listen .
WHO:
Lee Gelernt, lead counsel and deputy director of the ºìÐÓÊÓÆµâ€™s Immigrants' Rights Project, will argue the case.
WHEN:
Tuesday, September 29, 9:30 a.m. ET
WHERE:
E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse/Courtroom 20
333 Constitution Ave NW
Washington, D.C.
More court details:
Court live audio streaming here:
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
- Case page: HERE
- Amicus brief filed by more than 200 former judges:
- Let the Record Show Podcast: What Happens When the President Defies a Judge? The ºìÐÓÊÓÆµ just launched a new podcast, Let the Record Show, and its first episode is on J.G.G. v. Trump. Lee Gelernt explains what it means when the administration deports people without their day in court and in defiance of a judge's order, and why the case has become a referendum on due process, judicial review, and executive power.