Months before he blocked President Donald Trump’s deportations of illegal alien gang members, U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg attended a privately-funded legal conference in Idaho that featured sponsors and speakers who have expressed clear anti-Trump sentiments — particularly on immigration — and a theme that echoed the Democrat Party’s 2024 stated mission of saving democracy, according to a judicial ethics report.
Boasberg was one of nine Democrat-appointed judges and three Trump nominated jurists to attend the conference in ritzy Sun Valley, where two of the four sessions were titled “Role of Judges in a Democracy” and the “State of Democracy,” the report shows.
Called a “Privately Funded Seminar Disclosure Report,” the document discloses that Boasberg was in attendance, but offers no details of whether Boasberg was paid for his attendance or travel, or what the remuneration was.
Overseen by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, the ethical rules governing federal judges require that a private entity who “issues an invitation to a federal judge to attend an educational program as a speaker, panelist, or attendee and offers to pay for or reimburse that judge, in excess of $480, must disclose financial and programmatic information.” The rules do not require a specific accounting for each judge, or even how much was paid to judges at all.
You can view that disclosure here, which is also linked to the official website of the D.C. District Court.
Just the News was alerted to the conference and to Boasberg’s attendance by a retired Democrat-appointed judge, who was concerned the July 2024 conference’s focus on judges’ role in a democracy was too close to a political party’s theme for comfort. He declined to be named.
It is possible that his “payment” was merely reimbursement for expenses, but Boasberg did not respond to a request for comment from Just the News.
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