1. James Emanuel "Jeb" Boasberg was born on February 20,1963 and is an American lawyer and jurist who is currently serving as the chief judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
18 Facts About James Boasberg
1. 2.
James Boasberg was born in San Francisco, California, in 1963, to parents Sarah Margaret and Emanuel James Boasberg III.
3.
From 1986 to 1987, James Boasberg worked as a history teacher and women's basketball coach at Horace Mann School in New York City.
4.
James Boasberg then enrolled at Yale Law School, where he was a classmate of and lived in a group house with future Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh.
5.
James Boasberg graduated in 1990 with a Juris Doctor degree.
6.
In 1996 James Boasberg joined the office of the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, where he spent five and a half years as a prosecutor, specializing in homicides.
7.
James Boasberg officially took his commission as an associate judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, in September of 2002, for a term of 15 years.
8.
James Boasberg served in the civil and criminal divisions, and the domestic violence branch, until his appointment to the federal bench in 2011.
9.
James Boasberg became the chief judge on March 17,2023.
10.
James Boasberg is considered a feeder judge who sends many of his law clerks to clerk for Supreme Court justices.
11.
On March 27,2019, James Boasberg blocked a work requirement for recipients of Medicaid in Arkansas and Kentucky.
12.
James Boasberg has presided over litigation concerning the Dakota Access Pipeline since 2016.
13.
On March 25,2020, James Boasberg ordered a sweeping new environmental review by the Army Corps of Engineers of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
14.
However, on March 15,2025, Judge James Boasberg issued a 14-day restraining order, stating that he did not believe federal law permits the Trump administration to bypass removal proceedings in this manner.
15.
Specifically, James Boasberg noted there is no historical precedent for this kind of deportation when Congress has not made a declaration of war.
16.
Trump border czar Tom Homan said that the Trump administration completed the deportations despite the court order because James Boasberg's order was made when the planes were above international waters after departing the United States.
17.
On March 17,2025, Trump posted on social media that James Boasberg was a "Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator" and called for his impeachment.
18.
Chief Judge James Boasberg was randomly assigned to the case.