Legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance noticed something "very unusual" just happened in the case of Kilmar Ábrego García, the Maryland man taken by the Department of Homeland Security and sent to an El Salvador prison despite a judge's order.
Ábrego García was captured by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the guise that the tattoos on his hand, one of which included a Christian cross, represented the MS-13 gang.
On Bluesky, Vance found that the docket revealed that the judge in the case has granted permission for Ábrego García's lawyers to file sanctions against President Donald Trump's Justice Department.
"Which is very unusual," said Vance.
The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) "37 allows courts to order a number of sanctions against a party that fails to comply with court ordered discovery, including, 'directing that the matters embraced in the order or other designated facts be taken as established for purposes of the action, as the prevailing party claims,'" she cited.
"There are some interesting options in the rule," she pointed out. "We'll see what Abrego Garcia's lawyers ask for, but more importantly, just how far the judge is willing to go to maintain the authority of the courts. The sanction mentioned in post 2 is a powerful one."
It's possible that the public may not see much more information, she noted, because there's "a motion to seal discovery-related proceedings from yesterday, but it's hard to tell if it will apply to what's to come, or related to another matter that was terminated yesterday."
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the administration must “facilitate and effectuate the return of [Abrego Garcia] to the United States." They have not done so, according to some experts.