James Boasberg
James Emanuel "Jeb" Boasberg is an American lawyer and jurist serving as the chief judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He was appointed in 2011 by President Barack Obama and was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Boasberg previously served as a judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia from 2002 to 2011, having been appointed by President George W. Bush.
Chief Justice John Roberts appointed Boasberg to the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in 2014, and he served as the presiding judge of the FISC from 2020 to 2021. In 2020, he was appointed to the United States Alien Terrorist Removal Court and designated chief judge.
Early life and education
Boasberg was born in San Francisco, California, in 1963, to parents Sarah Margaret and Emanuel Boasberg III. The following year, the family moved to Washington, D.C., where Boasberg grew up, after his father accepted a position in the Office of Economic Opportunity, which played a key role in implementing many of President Lyndon B. Johnson's war on poverty programs. James and his younger brother Tom both attended St. Albans School, an Episcopal college prep academy in Washington.After graduating from St. Albans in 1981, Boasberg attended Yale University, where he was a member of the undergraduate society Skull and Bones. Standing tall, Boasberg also played forward for the Yale Bulldogs men's basketball team. He graduated in 1985 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude. The following year, he earned a Master of Studies degree from St Peter's College, Oxford. From 1986 to 1987, Boasberg worked as a history teacher and women's basketball coach at Horace Mann School in New York City. He then attended Yale Law School, where he was a classmate of and lived in a group house with future U.S. Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh. He graduated in 1990 with a Juris Doctor degree.
Clerkship and legal career, 1990–2001
After completing law school, Boasberg served from 1990 to 1991 as a law clerk for Judge Dorothy Wright Nelson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco. He then went into private practice, working from 1991 to 1994 in San Francisco at Keker, Brockett & Van Nest and from 1995 to 1996 in the District of Columbia at Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick. While at Kellogg, he was briefly colleagues with Neil Gorsuch.In 1996, Boasberg joined the office of the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, where he spent five and a half years as a prosecutor, specializing in homicides.
Judicial service, 2002–present
On March 12, 2002, after Judge Gregory E. Mize retired from the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, the District of Columbia Judicial Nomination Commission recommended Boasberg, Noël A. Brennan, and Brian F. Holeman as potential replacements. President George W. Bush nominated Boasberg on May 13, 2002. On July 25, 2002, the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs favorably reported out his nomination by voice vote. The full Senate confirmed his nomination by voice vote on August 1, 2002. Boasberg officially took his commission as an associate judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, in September 2002, for a term of 15 years. He served in the civil and criminal divisions and the domestic violence branch until his appointment to the federal bench in 2011.During the 111th Congress, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton recommended Boasberg to fill a judicial vacancy on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
On June 17, 2010, President Barack Obama formally nominated Boasberg to the district court for the District of Columbia. Boasberg was confirmed on March 14, 2011, by a 96–0 vote. He received his commission on March 17, 2011. He became the chief judge on March 17, 2023.
Boasberg is considered a feeder judge who sends many of his law clerks to clerk for Supreme Court justices.
Appointment to United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, 2014–2021
On February 7, 2014, Chief Justice John G. Roberts announced that he would appoint Boasberg to the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for a term starting May 18, 2014, to a seat being vacated by Reggie Walton. His term began May 18, 2014. On December 20, 2019, the FISC announced he would replace the presiding judge on January 1, 2020 and be elevated to that role. His term as presiding judge and judge of the FISC ended on May 19, 2021.Appointment to supervise FISA reforms
After a special appointment to oversee FISA court reforms, the judge made orders and procedures to the FISA court following the irregularities and criminal offenses discovered by Department of Justice Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz in his Crossfire Hurricane investigation report. Presiding over the trial and sentencing of Kevin Clinesmith for altering an email that was used in the FISA filing for an investigation of Trump presidential advisor Carter Page, Boasberg gave Clinesmith probation rather than the recommended prison time.Appointment to Alien Terrorist Removal court
In 2020, he was appointed to the United States Alien Terrorist Removal Court and designated chief judge. His term ended in 2025.Notable rulings
Osama Bin Laden photos
On April 26, 2012, Boasberg ruled that the public had no right to view government photos of a deceased Osama bin Laden. Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group, had filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act, but was unsuccessful in convincing Boasberg that FOIA rights outweighed national-security factors.Hillary Clinton emails
On August 22, 2016, Boasberg ordered the release of over 14,000 emails found in the United States Department of State correspondence of Hillary Clinton by the FBI during an investigation of Clinton's private server. These emails were requested by Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group, because the FBI had indicated that the emails were work-related and not entirely private, as Clinton had previously said.Trump tax returns
On August 18, 2017, Boasberg dismissed a lawsuit from the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which had sued the IRS under FOIA seeking President Donald Trump's personal tax returns from 2010 to the present to be released. Boasberg concluded that because personal tax returns are confidential, they may only be obtained either by permission from Trump himself or if Congress' joint committee on taxation signed off to allow the disclosure.Medicaid work rules
On March 27, 2019, Boasberg blocked a work requirement for recipients of Medicaid in Arkansas and Kentucky.Dakota Access Pipeline
Boasberg has presided over litigation concerning the Dakota Access Pipeline since 2016.On March 25, 2020, Boasberg ordered a sweeping new environmental review by the Army Corps of Engineers of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
In a subsequent decision on July 6, 2020, he vacated an easement to cross the Missouri River pending completion of the environmental review and ordered the pipeline to be emptied within 30 days. On August 5, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the ruling regarding the easement; however, the judges vacated the order to empty the pipeline and asked the Army Corps of Engineers to submit a follow-up brief on whether they would allow continued pipeline operation without the easement.
North Atlantic right whale
On April 9, 2020, Boasberg issued an opinion finding that the National Marine Fisheries Service violated the Endangered Species Act when it issued a biological opinion in 2014 allowing for the accidental killings of North Atlantic right whales, of which only about 400 remained as of April 8, 2020; by the American lobster fishery, which consists of seven areas spanning the east coast from Maine to North Carolina.Kevin Clinesmith sentencing
In January 2021, Boasberg sentenced former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith to 12 month's probation and 400 hours community service after Clinesmith pleaded guilty to altering a CIA email used in a FISA renewal application for Carter Page. The case was brought by Special Counsel John Durham. Prosecutors had sought prison time, arguing the alteration caused "immeasurable" harm to public trust. Boasberg, who was also presiding judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, declined, stating Clinesmith "likely believed" the information he inserted was true and was "taking an inappropriate shortcut." Boasberg noted the DOJ Inspector General had found no evidence Clinesmith acted with political bias.''J.G.G. v. Trump''
J.G.G. v. Donald J. Trump is a class action and habeas corpus lawsuit filed by five Venezuelan men in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody who were threatened with removal under a proclamation from President Donald Trump invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.On March 15, 2025, Boasberg issued a 14-day restraining order, stating that he did not believe federal law permits the Trump administration to bypass removal proceedings in this manner, noting there is no historical precedent for such deportations when Congress has not made a declaration of war. The administration allowed deportation flights to proceed despite the order.
In April 2025, Boasberg found probable cause that the Trump administration had committed criminal contempt for violating his March 15 orders. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals stayed contempt proceedings in December 2025.
On December 22, 2025, Boasberg ruled that 137 men deported under the Alien Enemies Act had been denied due process and ordered the administration to either facilitate their return to the United States or provide hearings by January 5, 2026.
''American Oversight v. Hegseth''
American Oversight v. Hegseth is a pending lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The case, submitted by watchdog group American Oversight, concerns allegations that officials in the Trump administration unlawfully used the encrypted Signal messaging app to discuss sensitive military operations, in violation of federal record-keeping laws. Chief Judge James Boasberg was randomly assigned to the case.The "Houthi PC small group" chat was a messaging thread involving senior officials of the Trump administration in March 2025, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Vice President JD Vance. The group discussed operational details related to a U.S. military strike on Houthi targets in Yemen on March 15, 2025.