DC Circuit Grants Mandamus Ordering Boasberg to Drop Criminal Contempt Inquiry Into Blanche and Bove

A divided DC Circuit panel granted mandamus on April 14, 2026, ordering Chief Judge James Boasberg to terminate his criminal contempt inquiry targeting Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and former acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove — officials Boasberg had found probable cause to believe willfully defied the March 2025 TRO blocking Alien Enemies Act deportation flights to El Salvador’s CECOT prison. The ruling functionally insulates executive-branch officials from criminal accountability for defying a direct federal court order in immigration enforcement.

The mandamus is a new stage in a contempt inquiry the timeline has tracked since its opening: Boasberg found probable cause of contempt in 2025-11-26–doj-reveals-noem-approved-deportations-defying-court-order and 2025-11-30–noem-denies-court-defiance-meet-the-press-activist-judges, ordered DOJ testimony in 2025-12-08–boasberg-orders-doj-testimony-alien-enemies-act, and saw the case stall while Bove was confirmed to the Third Circuit in 2026-06-01–boasberg-contempt-stalled-bove-confirmed-third-circuit. This April 14 mandamus predates and sets up that stall — the appellate panel’s termination order is the mechanism by which the inquiry lost force before Bove’s confirmation. It completes a feedback loop this corpus has documented elsewhere: DOJ installs loyalists in enforcement roles, courts attempt to hold them accountable for defiance, and a captured appellate panel terminates the inquiry before consequences attach.