President Donald Trump departs the Angel Families Remembrance Ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC on February 23, 2026. (Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

A divided U.S. appeals court panel has ruled that an "intrusive" criminal contempt investigation into the Trump administration over deportation flights to El Salvador must stop.

The ruling marks the latest in a yearlong legal saga in President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts. Here’s the latest:

On March 15, 2025, federal Judge James Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order barring the administration from transferring a group of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under an 18th century law. After the order was entered, two planeloads of migrants protected by the order departed from the U.S. on their way to El Salvador, where they were locked up in one of the world’s most violent prisons. The administration said then- Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was responsible for the transfer decision.

Boasberg has said the Trump administration may have acted in bad faith by trying to rush Venezuelan migrants out of the country in defiance of his order. He said he gave the administration "ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions" but concluded that "none of their responses has been satisfactory."

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Last year, the Justice Department filed a misconduct complaint accusing Boasberg of making improper public comments about Trump and his administration. Trump has called for impeaching Boasberg. In a rare rebuke, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts publicly rejected calls for Boasberg’s impeachment.

In a 2-1 ruling, the three-member appeals panel ruled that Boasberg abused his discretion in moving forward with criminal contempt proceedings because the Trump administration ignored his order. .

"The legal error at the heart of these criminal contempt proceedings demonstrates why further investigation by the district court is an abuse of discretion," Circuit Judge Neomi Rao wrote in the court’s majority opinion."Criminal contempt is available only for the violation of an order that  is clear and specific. (Boasberg’s March 2025 order) did not clearly and specifically bar the government from transferring plaintiffs into Salvadoran custody."

J. Michelle Childs, one of the judges on the panel who was nominated by Democratic President Joe Biden, dissented from the majority.