Judge who blocked Trump deportations took junket to event with anti-Trump speakers, sponsor

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.

Funding given to groups opposed to Trump's immigration policies

The conference was part of the Rodel Institute’s Judicial Fellowship and each of the judges in attendance -- including Boasberg -- was a first-year fellow, according to the institute's website. Rodel, in turn, is funded by the same foundations who often sponsor anti-Trump programs and publications, including:

• The Henry Luce Foundation, which funds groups such as the Migration Policy Institute, which recently claimed the Trump administration “bends U.S. government in extraordinary ways towards aim of mass deportations." The Luce Foundation has been also been a funder of the "Documented" immigration group, which describes itself as "a newsroom dedicated to reporting with and for immigrant communities in New York City." That group recently lamented "the plight of the Venezuelan diaspora — criminalized both in their home country and the United States" because of Trump;
• The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, which has over the years donated considerable cash to the The Brennan Center for Justice, which in turn opposes Trump's policies in litigation and by organizing events attacking those policies; and
• The Hewlett Foundation (which was a longtime supporter of the group when it was still part of the Aspen Institute too) which also proclaimed its less-than-flattering view of Trump as follows: “In a recent nadir, the attack on the counting of electoral votes in the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in the aftermath of which 147 G.O.P. legislators still voted in support of President Trump’s baseless efforts to overturn the election results, has further rendered the fabric of congressional civility and tolerance. Even that nadir, as severe as it was, may have been superseded by the subsequent inability of Congress even to agree to investigate the Capitol riot.”

Openly hostile associations

Some of Rodel's leadership team, institutional partners, funding sources, and its faculty partners are left-leaning or anti-Trump, and its annual book award is named for former Congressman Mickey Edwards, a former Republican congressman who is a harsh Trump critic and endorsed Joe Biden in 2020 and Kamala Harris in 2024.

Rodel’s chief executive officer John Kroger has sounded clear criticism of Trump in recent weeks on his Linked-In page, claiming Trump's administration has “intentionally” taken “a very large number of actions that violate statutes or clear constitutional precedent” that in prior times would warrant “bipartisan impeachment.”

Kroger said last year that Trump was “disqualified” from being president in his view, writing that “calling the convicted felons who attacked the Capitol on January 6 ‘patriots’ and ‘hostages,’ giving them a salute, and promising them pardons disqualifies you from being president.

"Truly awful," he added. "Real patriots oppose political violence and support the rule of law, plain and simple. Please support decency, values and common sense this election cycle, not extremism.”

Kroger was a presenter at a previous Rodel judicial fellows conference.

Rodel describes itself as a nonpartisan nonprofit committed to fostering excellence in leadership and its director of the judicial fellowship program, Jeff King, is a former Republican state legislator from Kansas. King did not respond to a request for comment from Just the News.

"Keeping migrant children in cages"

King was one of the featured speakers at the Sun Valley conference, giving a presentation  on the "State of Democracy," according to the ethics report.

Another speaker, respected Catholic University law professor Cara Drinan who led the discussion on the role of judges in a democracy (as well as a presentation on jurisprudence), has been overtly critical of Trump in legal writings and media interviews.

For instance, the Catholic University law school's website highlights an interview Drinan gave to Bloomberg News in 2018 in which she criticized Trump's first-term pardons for a "lack of apparent methodology" and alleged the president "appears to not pay close attention to the Department of Justice guidelines."

That same year, Drinan wrote a guest OpEd for the left-leaning Huffington Post decrying the Trump administration for "keeping migrant children in cages, claiming that a policy of family separation deters future illegal immigration.

"The images of what this policy entails are horrific: terrified, confused children watching as agents search their mothers; parents pleading with agents to show mercy; children sleeping on mats inside wire cages covered with Mylar blankets," she wrote. "The sounds of this inhumanity are even harder to stomach: children calling for their mother and father, sobbing to the point of breathlessness."

She also accused Trump of hypocrisy for claiming he couldn't change the situation and then signing an order to end it that she said was a "step in the right direction." 

"Last week, the nation witnessed an abrupt reversal from the White House," Drinan wrote. "After claiming for days that he did not have the authority to address the family separation crisis at the border, President Donald Trump appeared to do just that with the stroke of a pen."

She also joined scores of other law professors who signed a letter arguing against the confirmation of Trump's second pick to the U.S Supreme Court, Justice Brett Cavanaugh. In 2020, Drinan also advocated for clemency and the release of prisoners from sentences during the COVID-19 pandemic and in 2018 she praised Pope Francis' statements condemning the death penalty.

The Rodel Institute's Kroger wrote on LinkedIn about the conference attended by Boasberg last year.

"The Rodel Judicial Fellowship, now in its third year, and led by our own Jeff King, is one of our most important programs. We do this work because, as Jeff says, ‘A strong and independent judiciary forms the bedrock of American democracy.’ If you have questions about our work with judges, please let me know.” Kroger did not respond to a request for comment from Just the News.

Of the 12 federal judges who attended the conference, nine were nominated by Barack Obama or Joe Biden, while three were Trump appointees. They included Valerie Caproni, a former counsel under FBI Director Robert Mueller who was appointed to the bench by Obama, Biden appeals court appointee Anthony Devos Johnstone and Trump appointee Amul Thapar, according to the disclosure filed by Rodel and shared online by the D.C. District Court. 

The full attendance list below is in the order they appeared on Boasberg's disclosure form:

Judge Amal Thapar (a Trump nominee), Judge Anthony Devos (a Biden nominee), Judge James Boasberg (an Obama nominee), Judge Benita Pearson (an Obama nominee), Judge Elizabeth Branch (a Trump nominee), Judge Holly Thomas (a Biden nominee), Judge Joel Carson (a Trump nominee), Judge John Chun (a Biden nominee), Judge Madeline Arleo (an Obama nominee), Judge Robert Shelby (an Obama nominee), Judge Staci Yandle (an Obama nominee), and Judge Valerie Caproni (an Obama nominee).

Five state-level judges — Judge Jane Bland (nominated by GOP Texas Gov. Greg Abbott), Judge Sarah Campbell (nominated by Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee), Judge Matthew Fader (nominated by GOP Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan), Judge John Freudenberg (nominated by Republican Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts), and Judge Erin Lynch-Prata (nominated by Democratic Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo) — are also listed as being part of the Rodel Judicial Fellowship Class of 2024, but are not listed in Boasberg’s disclosure form.

After messages were sent to two of its leaders, the Rodel Institute sent Just the News a two-page largely informational statement on what the organization says it does.

“The Rodel Judicial Fellowship began in 2022 as an effort to counter the appearance of a more fractured, more political, and less collegial judiciary and as a way for judges to grow by sharing their beliefs and experiences with each other,” the Rodel Institute said, adding, “We work towards these goals through a curriculum that includes seminal readings from Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Justice Stephen Breyer, Justice Antonin Scalia, Professor Akil Amar, Judge Frank Easterbrook, Judge Richard Posner, and many others. Fellows read and discuss these foundational texts, exploring similarities and differences between participants’ judicial philosophies.”

Origins of the Institute

Before being spun off to create the Rodel Institute, the Rodel Fellowship was originally created in 2005 as a program at the Aspen Institute by former Republican Rep. Mickey Edwards and wealthy philanthropist Bill Budinger.

The fellowship trained hundreds of elected leaders from both the Republican and Democratic Party over the years, including former Vice President Kamala Harris (when she was still a county district attorney) and now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio (when he was still in the Florida House).

The Rodel Institute only became its own entity in the past few years. John Kroger has been the CEO of the Rodel Institute since August 2021, after being vice president of the Aspen Institute and working on the Rodel Fellowship there from August 2020 to August 2021.

While the head of the Rodel Institute, Kroger attended an event at the Biden White House, criticized Republican efforts to impeach Biden Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, criticized the “creation of a significant anti-democratic intellectual infrastructure” among conservatives, complimented Jack Smith as “a very serious person and a very rigorous, careful, painstaking prosecutor” when he indicted Trump, denied that China is a strategic threat to the U.S., and called Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s efforts opposing the teaching of critical race theory “unconstitutional and undemocratic.”

"Too many white men in positions of power"

Kroger previously worked as an aide to then-Rep. Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat, and then was an advisor to Bill Clinton, saying that “I got to learn about American politics at the side of a master.”

The CEO briefly worked as the Navy’s chief learning officer during the first Trump administration, but was highly critical of the Navy under Trump soon after he left, including his view that there were too many white men in positions of power. He wrote that “we need a revolutionary commitment to diversity and inclusion, starting at the top, that changes the way we recruit, assign, promote, and mentor officers and civilian executives of color.”

Kroger previously wrote on LinkedIn that the Rodel Fellows include a large number of elected officials, including “one Vice President of the United States!” — Kamala Harris. He has called his work at the Rodel Institute “a labor of love.”

The other key staff members at the Rodel Institute have largely been plucked from left-leaning backgrounds.

Lizzy McCourt Noonan, the executive director of the Rodel Fellowship, was previously the senior research associate at the Global Strategy Group, whose website states that “we have led campaigns for leading changemakers fighting for social justice and racial equality, the environment, ending gun violence, expanding women’s rights, and many other important issues." The group's partners include the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, EMILY's List, End Citizens United, and other leftwing causes.

Katie Moran is the deputy director of the Rodel Federal Executive Fellowship at the Rodel Institute, where she supports Kroger’s efforts. She was previously the director of the Make Room initiative at the Center for a New American Security, where her biography says that her “work focused on” issues such as “democracy” and “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

Susan Hwang, the director of advancement at the Rodel Institute, previously held a senior fundraising position at Facing History and Ourselves, an education advocacy group, and her LinkedIn page states that until early 2024 she was the philanthropy manager at ClientEarth, a environmental group critical of Trump.

Institutional partners compare supporting Trump to Nazism, white supremacy

The Rodel Institute lists two “institutional partners” with which it works closely — the University of Virginia’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, led by Ian Solomon, and the Kansas Leadership Center, led by Kaye Monk-Morgan. Both are Trump critics. Solomon is also on the Rodel Institute’s board of directors and is a faculty moderator for them, as well as being part of the institute’s book award committee. Monk-Morgan is also a Rodel Institute faculty moderator.

Solomon, the dean of the Virginia school and part of the university’s Racial Equity Task Force, worked as a legislative counsel to then-Sen. Barack Obama and worked as the executive director for the World Bank Group during the Obama administration. At the Virginia school, he hosted a conversation with leftist Ibram X. Kendi in 2021 as part of the “Racial Equity Speaker Series.” The school said Kendi provided a “strong platform for any institution’s discussions on racism and being antiracist.”

Solomon also hosted multiple events with Dan Heaphy in 2024 to talk about Heaphy’s time as the lead investigator for the Democrat-led House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack.

Solomon said that after Biden won the November 2020 election that “one of the tragedies of the past four years has been how Trumpism has found support among people who oppose civil rights and among people who sympathize with Nazism, nationalism, and white supremacy, and it was great to see that it was the black community really repudiating Trumpism.” He said the Republican Party experienced "permanent damage” under Trump.

Monk-Morgan, the president and CEO of the Kansas Leadership Center, said she was boycotting Ivanka Trump’s clothing brand in 2017 after Trump won the presidency. Monk-Morgan had previously bought five or six pairs of Ivanka-branded shoes, but told CNN in 2017: “It just so happens that with this particular administration, there’s an opportunity to protest with … where we spend our money … I said, you know what, I’m not going to buy this… We’re not going to support chaos.” She also touted her personal boycott on Twitter. Monk-Morgan was also listed as a “planning committee member” and an “organizer” for a “First Gens for Kamala” event posted October 2024.

Her “Monks Not Punks” consulting and speaking business said that “we specialize in…Diversity and Inclusion.” The Kansas Leadership Center press release announcing her hiring said that her business “supports stakeholders in a variety of industries focused on equity, women, and education.”

An article on the Witchita Business Journal’s virtual “Inclusion Summit” said that Monk-Morgan said in a one-on-one interview that “acknowledging privilege is a step toward inclusion.” And she said in a May 2022 interview that “we didn’t have an Office of Diversity and Inclusion when I first came to Wichita State. I started the first ever diversify-related programs.”

Monk-Morgan was a presenter at multiple previous Rodel judicial fellows conferences.

"Democracy under assault" by Trump: Rodel's faculty advisors 

The Rodel Institute also lists twenty faculty advisors for its organization — the vast majority of whom are Trump critics or have vocally opposed Trump policies.

One, Yale professor Akhil Reed Amar, filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in 2024 that Trump should be disqualified from running for president because of his involvement in an “insurrection.” He was a presenter at a previous Rodel judicial fellows conference.

Notre Dame professor Karrie Koesel signed a February open letter which read: “We write to express our urgent concern about threats to the basic design of American government and democracy. In its early days, the second administration of Donald J. Trump has disregarded existing laws and regulations. It threatens to undermine the division of powers and checks and balances, hallmarks of America’s constitutional order.”

University of Richmond law professor Jim Gibson signed a March open letter which said: “We believe we are in a constitutional crisis. The President has signed a number of executive orders that are beyond his constitutional or statutory authority.” Rebecca Hollander-Blumoff, a Washington University law professor, also signed that letter.

Fernando Cutz, who works at Meta, had been a senior advisor to former Trump National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, and was also on the Obama White House National Security Council. He attacked Trump in writing during the Ukraine impeachment in 2019: “Every career official will tell you it’s not just chilling but frightening. You’re seeing things happen in an unprecedented way that even Nixon didn’t do. . . . The broader message to career officials is that you can’t speak up. Even if you see something illegal, something unethical, you can’t speak up. That’s the message the president wants to send.”

Rodel awarded Francis Fukuyama, the author of The End of History and another Trump critic, with the Edwards Book Award. Fukuyama said in September 2024 that “the willingness of many Republican voters to normalize the events of January 6, 2021, is a symptom of weakening democratic norms in the world’s leading democracy.”

National Defense University professor Jill Goldenziel argued after Trump won in November 2016: “Not all Trump voters are racist. But justice demands we all denounce the hate his campaign empowered.” She argued in December 2020 that Trump’s “contempt for the law of war has damaged U.S. national security.”

David Greenberg, a professor at Rutgers, is a Trump critic who has negatively compared Trump to former President Richard Nixon.

Juliette Kayyem, a Harvard lecturer and former Obama national security official, is a constant Trump critic on TV and in print. Days after January 6th, she said, “For the past four years, Donald Trump has been playing two roles: one as president, and the other as the rallying point for a coalition of theocrats, internet fantasists, white supremacists, and various other authoritarians who are in no way committed to peaceful transitions of power. Wednesday’s insurrection at the United States Capitol made Trump’s latter role all too clear.”

Cornell law professor Alexandra Lahav has repeatedly defended Boasberg’s handling of the Venezuelan gang member case on BlueSky, the social media platform created as a safe space for leftists. Lahav, who has also critiqued Elon Musk's DOGE effort, was a presenter at multiple previous Rodel judicial fellows conferences.

Lou Mulligan, the law dean at the University of Missouri - Kansas City was on a list of amici — “friends of the court” — in a lawsuit filed by congressional Democrats who sought to sue Trump over allegations that he had violated the Constitution’s foreign emoluments clause. Most related to the issue with Boasberg, he was also amici in litigation opposing the Trump administration in court over Trump’s executive orders limiting immigration to the U.S. from a number of predominantly Muslim countries. Mulligan was a presenter at multiple previous Rodel judicial fellows conferences.

Deanell Reece Tacha, the dean emeritus of Pepperdine law school, is a retired Reagan-appointed federal judge, but she endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, calling the election a “stark choice.” She was a presenter at a previous Rodel judicial fellows conference.

Stanford law professor Nathaniel Persily has repeatedly referred to January 6th as an “insurrection.” He declared in January 2021 that “the basics of American democracy and government are under assault” by Trump, suggesting that Democrats should make D.C. and Puerto Rico states to benefit them electorally. 

A group of leftwing philanthropic organizations signed a June 2023 open letter opposing the Supreme Court’s ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina and Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, where the Supreme Court had struck down affirmative action admissions policies at the schools. Among the signatories was “Rodel” — although it is unclear if the signer was Rodel Inc., the Rodel Foundation, or the Rodel Institute.

Book award named for ex-Republican and Trump critic

The Rodel Institute announced the creation of the Edwards Book Award in 2022. The institute’s CEO, Kroger, said that "with threats to democracy increasing across the globe, recognizing books addressing how democracies thrive is more important than ever.” The prize was “named in honor of Marvin Henry ‘Mickey’ Edwards, who has inspired generations of American public servants and students as a Member of Congress… and founding Executive Director of the Rodel Fellowship.”

Mickey Edwards, the former Republican congressman, wrote in September 2020: “Joe Biden is not a perfect man, but he is a man of humble decency. America needs a restored sense of national unity, basic civility and true character in our president. After four years of reckless Trumpian chaos and division, we believe it is time for a new president and ask that you join us.”

Edwards said a week after January 6th that “there is no Republican Party anymore that has values, principles, morals, anything. They voted to question the election results even after people came into the Capitol, tried to kill them, and killed a police officer who was trying to protect them.” Edwards said in February 2021 that attendees of CPAC no longer believed in the Constitution, free elections, or democracy, saying that “they're no different than the people who flock to other totalitarian leaders in other countries.”

He said in October that “after devoting nearly 60 years to the Republican Party… I am going to vote for Harris for president.” Edwards wrote in January that “it’s been four years since the United States Capitol was attacked by an army of Americans” and he lamented that “the man who set it in motion will again take the oath of office he violated four years ago and move back into the White House.”

The Board of Directors leans left or just dislikes Trump, or both

The Rodel Institute’s Board of Directors also includes a number of Trump critics — again including Ian Solomon among them.

Bill Budinger, the co-founder of the Rodel Foundation, was a founding trustee for the Democratic Leadership Council and has been listed as a trustee for the Progressive Policy Institute, which was founded by the Democratic Leadership Council.

Don Budinger, also a co-founder of the Rodel Foundation, signed onto a 2011 petition opposing state-level efforts in Arizona to deal with illegal immigration, donated to Democratic Senate candidate Mark Kelly in 2019, and attended a fundraiser for Democratic Senate candidate Ruben Gale in May 2024.

Steve Bullock was the former Democratic governor of Montana and was reportedly considered as a contender for Kamala Harris’s Cabinet had she won.

Heather Carter, a former Arizona state legislator who had been a Republican but later registered as an independent, has become critical of the GOP and has endorsed some Democrats. She said that “I am 100% supporting Katie Hobbs” — the Democratic candidate for Arizona governor — in 2022, arguing, “As a former Republican, I became even more concerned with the fact that we have Republican candidates who are fundamentally peddling lies about the 2020 election.”

Jamie Woodson, a former Republican Tennessee state senator, was the co-chair for a 2019 report on the “Crisis in Democracy: Renewing Trust in America.” The report said that “provocateurs and hatemongers, foreign and domestic, are fueling disagreements, and media are amplifying the divides” and lamented the “failure to neutralize political disinformation campaigns during the 2016 U.S. presidential election cycle.”

Rob McKenna, the former Republican attorney general in Washington, called Trump "a demagogue and an opportunist with no real foundation in principles or values." McKenna also criticized Trump over his fight with Boasberg this month, calling Trump’s legal arguments “flimsy.”