James Emanuel Boasberg

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American federal judge (born 1963)

James Emanuel "Jeb" Boasberg (born 1963) 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 (FISC) 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

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Boasberg was born in San Francisco , California , in 1963, into a Jewish family, his parents being Sarah Margaret (née Szold ) 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 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) 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

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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 (now Keker, Van Nest & Peters LLP ) 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

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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 to

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Osama Bin Laden photos

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Further information: Killing of Osama bin Laden § Release of photographs

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 (FOIA), but was unsuccessful in convincing Boasberg that FOIA rights outweighed national-security factors.

Hillary Clinton emails

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Further information: Hillary Clinton email controversy

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

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Further information: Tax returns of Donald Trump

On August 18, 2017, Boasberg dismissed a lawsuit from the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), 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

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Further information: Medicaid § Medicaid work requirements

On March 27, 2019, Boasberg blocked a work requirement for recipients of Medicaid in Arkansas and Kentucky.

Dakota Access Pipeline

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Further information: 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.