Patricia Millett

... or the government.

Now, Judge Patricia Millett questioned why Boasberg shouldn't be allowed to continue with his inquiry so he can determine if other government officials ... merit additional scrutiny for possible criminal contempt.

Quote, "Are district courts allowed to decide if people have engaged in contempt in front of them?" That's what Millett asked, who was nominated by Obama, by the way.

Quote, "The district court loses the authority to investigate." That's Brett Shumate from the DOJ.

But he's hearing from Ensign about the exact, uh, jurisdictional challenges that you're articulating here and saying, you know, that hasn't been briefed before him.

He's saying, "I, I, I'm open, I'm gonna think about that." So I think that the point that Judge Millett is making about Mine Workers and the, you know, the sort of provisional jurisdiction to hold the status quo, which the court describes as, at 132 of the JA, as keeping these folks in ICE custody, he wants to maintain that status quo, and that's the jurisdiction that he's exercising.

Can a district court judge grant a TRO without making at least some sort of preliminary, even tentative finding that it has subject matter jurisdiction over the claim?

I think United Mine Workers, so y- yes, I think United Mine Workers and Shipp recognize that a court can issue an injunction to freeze the status quo while it still is assessing its jurisdiction.

It's not, it's an investigation as to whether he should refer this case for contempt.

And the colloquy that you're having with Judge Rao seems to ignore the fact that there's evidence in the record that, as Judge Millett pointed out, there was a government official who said that we should say F you to the courts and not obey court orders.

And- On Judge Boasberg's own statements, he s- asked the government for a name.

They gave him a name, and I don't believe there's anything in the record.

But he's hearing from Ensign about the exact, uh, jurisdictional challenges that you're articulating here and saying, you know, that hasn't been briefed before him.

He's saying, "I, I'm open.

I'm gonna think about that." So I think that the point that Judge Millett is making about Mine Workers and the, you know, the sort of provisional jurisdiction to hold the status quo, which the court describes as at one thirty-two of the JA as keeping these folks in ICE custody, that he wants to maintain that status quo.

And that's the jurisdiction that he's exercising.

I mean, I think I'm fairly positive that every judge who was present except Garcia spoke, although some spoke at much greater length than others.

So I-- Judge Millett was very vocal on kind of the going hard on the government and questioning them both when it comes to how should this investigation...

In fact, she said, "Everything you're doing is wordplay on what you mean by investigate.

We could call it an inquiry instead." But in how this fact-finding should go and whether it's reasonable to suggest, as the Department of Justice was, that it has to proceed in this really specific way.

It was this kind of new law that you probably haven't litigated before, have you?" And so he seemed to be gesturing there at the idea of, like, well, you know, it's not nec- you c- you can't know for sure that they would interpret it to whether in the, in the, whether in the oral case or in the written case, it may not have been totally clear to the government how to interpret what was going on.

So at the end of the day, how many votes on each side can you count with confidence, not about how they'll reason it, but, you know, you feel like you know pretty well what side...

It seemed like we know what side Patty Millett is on.

We know what side, uh, Judge Pan is on, Judge Child is on.

Circuit Court of Appeals.

And these are highly complex legal battles being overseen by a panel that includes judges Cornelia Pillard, Patricia Millett and J. Michelle Child.

The arguments were heard back to back just this month.

Let's break down the first one.

And the three-judge panel heard multiple examples of that from advocates for the petitioners in this case.

Three judges were all appointed and passed by Democratic presidents and were Cornelia Pillard, J. Michelle Childs, and Patricia A. Millett, all of whom you'll hear throughout interjecting with questions for each advocate, such as this one directed to FMCSA's lawyer and getting at the heart of the matter in question.

The agency views consular vetting as a proxy for safety records checks, yet the view of the judge maybe didn't effectively show the work.

You're between a rock and a hard place here because You've got an arbitrary and capricious challenge.