Seventh Circuit Says CBP Commander Won’t Have To Explain Why He’s Violating Court Orders On A Daily Basis

from the go-forth-and-violate dept

CBP commander Gregory Bovino has been given a temporary free pass by the Seventh Circuit Appeals Court to continue violating a court order he’s been violating since the lower court first issued it. So, that’s how things continue to go in terms of checks and balances here in the United States. You know, poorly.

Not that we should have expected anything else, now that it’s clear that if things go far enough, the Supreme Court will step in to give Trump whatever he wants and give the country absolutely zero explanation for its actions.

Gregory Bovino is one of those “old school” guys, which means he’s presumably a hot-headed racist who thinks law enforcement should behave more like vigilantes than public servants. That’s why he decided to engage in his own wide-scale anti-migrant effort before Trump was even sworn back into office — an action that had not been cleared by the still-in-office Biden administration.

Trump liked this preemptive bigotry so much he’s given Bovino a leading role in the federal government’s invasion of Chicago. Things are going the way you’d expect, with powerful bigots punching down to inflict misery on anyone who doesn’t look white/MAGA enough to be allowed to remain in the United States.

Bovino, at least, leads from the front. And that’s getting him in trouble. A federal court recently handed down an order restricting the use of crowd control munitions by CBP, ICE, etc. after lots of credible reports surfaced showing federal officers engaging in unprovoked acts of violence, often in direct violation of their own training and use-of-force guidelines.

And it was Bovino who first demonstrated he’s aligned fully with the Trump administration — at least in terms of believing courts don’t actually have any authority over him. He not only stated he only served one person (Donald Trump), but insulted the judge who had issued the order right after he was caught on tape personally violating the court order.

That act of deliberate defiance understandably irritated Judge Sara Ellis. She issued an order demanding Bovino show up in court each day to give her a rundown on use-of-force incidents. It was a reasonable request, given the circumstances. But we’re dealing with an unreasonable person who has the good fortune to be working for an equally unreasonable administration.

As soon as this order was issued, the DOJ and DHS immediately asked for it to be reversed. It hasn’t gotten that yet, but it has obtained a stay from the Seventh Circuit Appeals Court, which means Bovino won’t have to show up in court until there’s a final ruling on this order.

The unsigned opinion from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals granted the request from lawyers from the Trump administration to block U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis’ order that Bovino appear in her courtroom every weekday at 6 p.m. to recap the events of the day and inform her of any use of force.

Ellis’ order “infringes on the separation of powers,” the appeals court ruled.

Ellis’ order “puts the court in the position of an inquisitor rather than that of a neutral adjudicator,” according to the ruling.

It also sets up the court “as a supervisor of Chief Bovino’s activities, intruding into personnel management decisions of the executive branch.”

That this “opinion” is unsigned really signifies nothing. It isn’t actually an opinion. It’s just a stay, which means the Seventh doesn’t actually have to explain its actions in any detail.

That being said, it’s already paying off for Bovino and the CBP officers he’s overseeing in Chicago, as Heather Cherone points out on Bluesky:

A partial list of what Bovino does not have to tell a federal judge happened today:

*An agent pushed a City Council member in Albany Park
*Agents deployed pepper spray in Albany Park & Evanston
*Agents were involved in a car crash in Evanston
*An agent pointed a gun at a woman in Evanston

There it is. The gloves will stay off, assuming Bovino even considered figuratively putting them on. The legality will remain “unsettled,” which in this legal climate just tends to mean the nation’s higher courts haven’t figured out exactly how they’re going to let this administration keep getting away with it. And Bovino will remain the lawless asshole he’s always been, to the detriment of Chicago and the nation beyond.

Filed Under: 7th circuit, cbp, chicago, dhs, gregory bovino, mass deportation, trump administration