(Reuters) – A federal appeals court on Monday declined to dismiss an “unprecedented” criminal case filed during the Trump administration against a Massachusetts judge accused of impeding a federal immigration arrest of a defendant in her courtroom.
Lawyers for Newton District Court Judge Shelley Joseph had argued that she enjoyed immunity as a sitting judge for actions she took within her official capacity and that the prosecution was unconstitutional.
But the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston called her appeal “premature,” saying that absent an explicit statutory or constitutional right to avoid trial, she and her courtroom deputy, Wesley MacGregor, would need to face a jury first.
Prosecutors have accused them of blocking a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent from detaining a previously deported man by helping him leave the courthouse through a rear door in 2018.
U.S. Circuit Judge William Kayatta, writing for the three-judge panel, called the case an “apparently unprecedented prosecution” and acknowledged it could “chill other judges from refusing to assist federal officials.”
But the flaw in Joseph’s argument, Kayatta said, was that “judicial immunity – even assuming that it applies in this criminal case – does not provide a right not to be tried that can serve as a basis for interlocutory review.”
As a result, the 1st Circuit without commenting on the merits of the case said it lacked jurisdiction to hear her pre-trial appeal.
The court similarly rejected arguments that the U.S. Constitution’s 10th Amendment’s bars federal immigration officials from forcing state officials to help enforce federal policy, saying that was a defense they could assert at trial.
Thomas Hoopes, a lawyer for Joseph at Libby Hoopes Brooks, declined to comment. Rosemary Scapicchio, MacGregor’s lawyer, did not respond to a request for comment.
Joseph and MacGregor were indicted in 2019 amid clashes between then-President Donald Trump’s administration and local governments including “sanctuary cities” that resisted his immigration crackdown and courthouse arrests by ICE officers.
The case was first brought under then-U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling, a Trump appointee who was succeeded by Rachael Rollins, an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden.
When she was Boston’s district attorney, Rollins sued to block the Trump administration from carrying out immigration arrests at courthouses.
The 1st Circuit in 2020 overturned an injunction she won barring just that, though the Biden administration in April 2021 said it would limit arrests of migrants in or near courthouses.
The case is United States v. Joseph, 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 20-1787.
For the United States: Donald Lockhart of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts
For Joseph: Douglas Brooks and Thomas Hoopes of Libby Hoopes Brooks; and Elizabeth Mulvey of Crowe & Mulvey
For MacGregor: Rosemary Scapicchio of Law Office of Rosemary Scapicchio
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Nate Raymond reports on the federal judiciary and litigation. He can be reached at nate.raymond@thomsonreuters.com.