FILE PHOTO: The crest of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is seen at their headquarters in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 10, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo/File Photo
U.S. District Court Judge Boasberg took issue with President Donald Trump's administration on Thursday.
The Justice Department was scheduled to file information with the judge responding to her questions about the flights with deported migrants to El Salvador. The judge ordered that the administration turn around a plane of migrants deported without due process.
The administration did not turn the plane around, and the judge asked for specific information about the ordeal. The administration has been slow to respond.
ALSO READ: This is not a drill: Trump's new attack on America means no one is safe
MSNBC producer Kyle Griffin noted earlier that the administration flew past the deadline to provide answers.
Judge Boasberg issued a statement with a list of deadlines.
Reporters and legal analysts drew attention to the judge's strong language and demands.
Lawfare's Anna Bower remarked, "Boasberg's patience is wearing thin."
"After the DOJ once again failed to fully answer his questions, Judge Boasberg has filed an order describing their response as 'woefully insufficient' and requiring them to show cause as to why they haven't violated his TROs on deportations under the Alien Enemies Act," said reporter Jordan Fischer from WUSA.
Lawfare's Roger Parloff pointed out, "Rather than provide Judge Boasberg the flight details he sought or invoke state secrets privilege, Trump Adm jerked him around again. It submitted same info it had provided before & said it was still weighing whether to invoke state secret privilege."
The judge issued a list of demands with deadlines for March 21, March 25 and March 31.
One lawyer wrote he thought the judge was going easy. "Holy crap Boasberg is being so lenient and [in my humble opinion] giving far too much time to [the] government. Might be worth for appeal tho. Trump clearly violated the TROs."
Boss Fight Entertainment creative director Damion Schuber reached out to legal experts to ask, "What's the next logical step of escalation if the government continues to disobey? Is there a world where government lawyers start going to jail for contempt?"
One lawyer who goes by "The Questionable Authority," answered, "This is a judge who is very slowly and very carefully making an impeccable record for appeal - one that shows that the government has been given every conceivable opportunity to make its case. And that's all I have to say about that."
The Atlantic's Joshua J. Friedman noted, "Judge Boasberg issues a show-cause order (precedes contempt sanctions) on why he shouldn't find that the gov't defied his orders. "In an ex parte pleading delivered shortly after today’s deadline, the Government again evaded its obligations."
It led civil rights lawyer Joshua Elrich to explain, "Being on the wrong end of a show cause from a federal judge is terrifying."
Georgetown Law Professor Steve Vladeck related that case with another one.
"For all of the focus on the contretemps in the Alien Enemy Act litigation before Chief Judge Boasberg, don't sleep on the Justice Department's appalling behavior in the Perkins Coie litigation before Judge Howell. At some point, maybe it's not the judges who are rogue?" he said on Blue Sky.
In an interview with Politico, retired federal judge Shira Scheindlin argued that holding Trump officials in civil contempt rather than criminal contempt was a more likely scenario given that the Trump Department of Justice would likely decline to prosecute a criminal contempt case against its own officials.