A federal appeals court hearing on Tuesday could determine whether a judge can continue investigating if Trump administration officials knowingly defied his order to turn around deportation fights to El Salvador, former federal prosecutor Harry Litman warned.

Writing for The New Republic, Litman, a senior legal columnist, said the case has taken a “long, tortuous path” to Tuesday’s hearing. Now, the full D.C. Circuit will hear arguments on whether Judge James Boasberg can continue probing the administration’s actions.

It began in March 2025, when Boasberg ordered planes carrying Venezuelan migrants returned to the United States. Instead, the planes landed in El Salvador.

“Eighteen months later, the only question before the court is narrow, and worth stating precisely, because the government has spent great energy twisting it into something else,” Litman told readers. “May Chief Judge of the D.C. District Court James Boasberg continue to inquire into whether the administration knowingly defied his order?”

Litman joined 11 other former Justice Department officials in a brief urging the full D.C. Circuit to let the inquiry proceed. He stressed that Boasberg has made no finding of contempt.

“The D.C. Circuit should stand behind Boasberg’s doggedness,” he wrote in Monday’s analysis.

The hearing also put renewed attention on an allegation from former Justice Department lawyer Erez Reuveni, who told Congress that then-senior DOJ official Emil Bove said the planes would leave “no matter what.”

For Litman, the stakes extend beyond the flights. He accused the administration of an “Orwellian project of whitewashing history” and said the hearing could help answer whether Trump officials believe they could ignore a judge’s order.

“It is vital for us to know as a country whether the administration came into office determined to elevate presidential will over the rule of law, to land the planes ‘no matter what,’” he concluded. “Unless Boasberg is permitted to finish the job he started well over a year ago, we may never learn the answer.”

Add the travel industry to the growing list of economic casualties of President Donald Trump's policies, joining farmers and manufacturers as sectors bleeding cash under his trade wars and border crackdowns.

Geoff Freeman, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, laid out the damage in blunt terms to Axios co-founder Jim VandeHei: even America's "closest allies" are refusing to visit. Despite the U.S. hosting the World Cup this summer, overseas travel still fell — the country is on pace to lose 2 million overseas visitors compared with last year, a drop that leaves visitation 20 percent below its 2019 peak.

"We're the only major country in the world losing visitation," Freeman told VandeHei. "It's mind-boggling."

The falloff is concentrated among traditional allies. Canada is down 23 percent over two years, while Germany and France have each dropped double digits year to date. Freeman said the exodus is "largely out of protest and fear" rather than economics, as travelers shun a country whose tariffs and immigration enforcement have made headlines abroad.

Meanwhile, China is "capturing the visitors America is losing by expanding visa-free entry," and Japan is riding the "cheap yen" and surging reputation to a long-term tourism boom.

The hit to travel — an industry that supports millions of U.S. jobs — lands alongside mounting anger from farmers squeezed by Trump's tariff fights and cut off from major agricultural buyers, and manufacturers still waiting for the factory jobs Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs promised but never delivered.

A campus town hall for Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) has banned all recording — with every debate in Florida's race for governor now canceled.

The ban appears in the event listing for Tuesday's forum at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, where Donalds, the Republican nominee for governor, will speak to students. The FAMU Student Government Association is hosting the event, which is limited to current FAMU students, according to the listing. Anyone else who wants to attend must contact organizers.

"No signs of any kind are permitted. No recording, audio or visual recording, is permitted," the listing states.

The forum took the place of a televised debate between Donalds and Democratic nominee David Jolly, a former congressman, that FAMU had planned to host. The university canceled the debate after Jolly declined to take part, WCTV reported.

The student government then invited both candidates to meet with students instead, and Jolly is scheduled to visit Oct. 12, according to WCTV.

Jolly said Sept. 20 that he would not debate Donalds at all, citing Donalds' "repeated lies and bad faith," USA TODAY Network-Florida reported.

"We accepted multiple debates before this week. Byron refused them and instead set his own rules by press release," Jolly said in a statement.

If no debate takes place, the contest would be Florida's first governor's race in more than 50 years without one, WTXL observed.

Two days before Jolly's announcement, the Donalds campaign had unveiled three debates without consulting Jolly's campaign, according to the USA TODAY Network-Florida. None would have included an audience or let voters ask questions.

"I said 3 debates. Jolly said 12 debates. Yesterday, Jolly said no debates. Who's the liar Dave?" Donalds wrote on X in response, WTXL reported.

Earlier in September, a Tampa Tiger Bay Club board member told the Florida Phoenix that Donalds' campaign had agreed to a joint forum with Jolly, then asked to appear separately, then pulled out and offered to send his running mate, Bryan Avila.

"At no point was it on our calendar," a source close to the Donalds campaign told the Phoenix.

"I noticed that Jolly does not take questions. … He's never around for the voters to ask him something," Donalds said at a Labor Day weekend event near MacDill Air Force Base, according to the Phoenix.

Donalds also skipped debates during the Republican primary, when the state party said his rivals had failed to qualify, the USA TODAY Network-Florida reported.

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) criticized that move, according to the network.

Patrick Bet-David, the Fort Lauderdale-based host of the PBD Podcast, criticized the lack of debates in Florida's governor's race in a clip the show posted on X Monday. Bet-David has said he voted for President Donald Trump three times, HuffPost reported.

"That's b—," Bet-David said, blurting out an expletive.

"Somebody thought that was a good idea. Who the hell were those people? Who are you? Who are you? Faceless. Who were those people?" he continued.

"So now it's on the voters. 'Hey, let's put all the pressure on the voters.' Wait, what? 'You should go vote.' No, I shouldn't — get me excited," Bet-David said.

"Is this an entitled Republican Party? What an unattractive approach to take. And this is coming from a conservative guy with conservative values, pro-capitalism, pro-freedom of speech. … No, that is a royal, royal screw-up," he added.

Trump endorsed Donalds, but Donalds removed most mentions of it from his website last week, NBC News reported. The campaign cited a focus on policy.

Polls show the race effectively tied in a Republican-leaning state ahead of the Nov. 3 election, FOX 13 reported.