Federal Judge James Boasberg is coming under growing fire from President Donald Trump and his allies as he oversees several high-profile lawsuits targeting the Trump administration—scrutiny that has now extended to Boasberg’s personal and professional background.
Appointed to the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court by Chief Justice John Roberts and reportedly a former Yale roommate of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Boasberg has become a lightning rod for conservative criticism. Now serving as chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Boasberg has faced backlash for rulings that include blocking deportations of violent illegal immigrants and presiding over cases involving leaked internal government communications—moves Trump and his supporters say reflect judicial bias, Fox News reported.
“The Chief Justice handpicked DC Obama Judge Jeb Boasberg to serve on the FISA court,” said Mike Davis, president of the Article III Project. “The DC federal judges are in a cozy little club, and they protect their own.” His remarks echo a broader sentiment on the right that Boasberg’s judicial decisions – and his close ties within the legal establishment – reflect a partisan tilt against the president.
Boasberg, a native of Washington, D.C., earned a graduate degree in Modern European History from Oxford University in 1986 before attending Yale Law School, where he reportedly shared housing with Kavanaugh, according to multiple reports. After graduating in 1990, Boasberg clerked for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, then joined the San Francisco law firm Keker & Van Nest as a litigation associate from 1991 to 1994. He later practiced at Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd & Evans in Washington, D.C., from 1995 to 1996, Fox noted.
After working in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, Boasberg was appointed in 2002 by President George W. Bush as an associate judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, the local trial court for the city. In 2011, President Barack Obama nominated him to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He was confirmed by the Senate and officially received his commission on March 17, 2011.
Boasberg was later appointed to the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA Court) by Roberts to serve a seven-year term. The FISA Court consists of 11 federal judges, each selected by the chief justice. Judges on the court undergo extensive background checks and are tasked with reviewing and authorizing surveillance and wiretap requests from federal prosecutors, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies. Much of the court’s work is classified. Boasberg served as the presiding judge of the FISA Court from 2020 to 2021, after which he resumed his duties on the D.C. District Court.
Boasberg faced renewed criticism after being randomly assigned to oversee a lawsuit related to a leaked Signal chat involving the Trump administration. Following the assignment, Trump took to Truth Social to accuse Boasberg of “grabbing the ‘Trump Cases’ all to himself.”
Davis also took to social media, writing, “Judge Jeb Boasberg is lighting on fire his legitimacy over an unnecessary, lawless, and dangerous pissing match with the President Jeb will lose. Let’s hope the Chief Justice doesn’t light the entire federal judiciary’s legitimacy on fire by siding with his personal buddy Jeb.”