Seventh Circuit vacates Judge Ellis's Chicago use-of-force injunction, the order that carried her finding against Bovino

On March 5, 2026, a Seventh Circuit panel of Chief Judge Brennan and Circuit Judges Easterbrook and Scudder, in a per curiam opinion in Chicago Headline Club v. Noem (No. 25-3023), granted the government’s motion, vacated Judge Sara Ellis’s preliminary injunction and dismissed the appeal. Judge Easterbrook dissented, writing that the court should have dismissed the appeal without vacating. The clerk’s final judgment, filed 04/27/2026, reads “We VACATE the district court’s order granting the preliminary injunction.” The plaintiffs had asked the district court to dismiss the case because “it appears that Operation Midway Blitz has ended.”

The vacated order carried Ellis’s finding that Bovino’s testimony was not credible. The panel did not rule on whether that finding was right. It described the district court as having found the government’s witnesses “categorically not credible,” said the plaintiffs’ dismissal “deprived appellate courts of the chance to decide whether that evidentiary ruling was an abuse of discretion,” and wrote that “it would not be appropriate for a future case to incorporate the district court’s findings of fact or legal conclusions without further, more detailed analysis.” Vacatur removed the order’s legal effect; it did not adjudicate, retract or reverse the finding on the merits. The opinion also recounts that the district court had mandated that Bovino “appear in court daily and answer the court’s questions about compliance with the TRO.” It adds: “This court granted the government’s request for a writ of mandamus.”

Bovino was a named defendant, not a sanctioned party, in the case. See the Chicago finding at 2025-11-06–judge-ellis-finds-bovino-lied-preliminary-injunction and CBP’s internal inquiry at 2026-03-02–cbp-opr-compelled-declaration-bovino-ellis-credibility-findings.