Judge Wilkinson's must-read manifesto on the rule of law

In Kilmar Abrego Garcia's case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit wrote the rebuke of Trump's lawlessness that the U.S. Supreme Court should have

As you may remember, the Supreme Court recently directed the Trump Administration to “facilitate” Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia’s release from CECOT prison in El Salvador and return him to America. Abrego Garcia was illegally deported by accident by the Trump administration, which doggedly refuses to correct its error.

On April 17, the U.S. Court of Appeals for Fourth Circuit refused to step in on Trump’s behalf in words that crisply emphasized the need to protect the rule of law in America. If you care about what’s going on today, the six plus pages are well-worth your time. You, like me, might come away feeling inspired. (We all kinda need that right now.)

It’s also a helpful thing to have if you find yourself debating someone who may be persuaded that Trump’s deportations—even if technically illegal—are okay.

I’ll break it down first.

What is Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s alleged connection to a gang?

When I was on C-SPAN recently, a caller indicated that a judge had found Abrego Garcia to be a gang member, so the deportation was appropriate — even if it was done in violation of due process. Because this is a view that others may have, let me pass along what actually happened.

The government claims that Abrego Garcia is a “verified” member of MS-13 and a “terrorist.” Although he has no criminal record in the United States, Abrego Garcia in October of 2019 an immigration judge determined that he could not be returned to El Salvador due to a credible fear of persecution there by a different gang. According to attorneys, members of that gang are in CECOT.

According to Roger Parloff for Lawfare, the government’s allegation was based on “a federal I-213 form (Record of Deportable/Inadmissible Alien), filled out by ICE, and a form generated by the Prince George’s Police Department, called a Gang Field Interview Sheet (GFIS). The latter had been entered into the Prince George’s Police Department database at 6:47 p.m. on March 28, 2019—about four hours after police met Abrego Garcia for the first time—according to Abrego Garcia’s recent complaint.”

The these forms — one created by ICE and the other by the local police — indicated two things:

• “that Abrego Garcia was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie;

• and that a confidential informant advised that he was an active member of MS-13 with the Westerns clique” that “operates in Brentwood, Long Island, in New York, a state that Plaintiff Abrego Garcia has never lived in.”

Based on the clothing and the informant, whom Abrego Garcia was not allowed to cross-examine, the judge that the was a gang member but should not be deported to El Salvador. It’s that order that the Trump administration violated.

This is even though she admitted that the information was “at odds.” The federal I-213 form claimed that Abrego Garcia had been detained “in connection with a murder investigation,” while the GFIS form said he and the others had been arrested because they were “loitering outside of a Home Depot.”

Neither of these forms have been introduced to the district court judge handling his illegal deportation in 2025. That court ordered that the government “facilitate” his return, and the Supreme Court agreed, urging the administration to make an effort to bring Abrego Garcia back home to his wife and children but directed the lower court to be mindful of the president’s “authority to manage foreign policy.”

That was April 10. Abrego Garcia remains in El Salvador. The government has refused to abide by a ruling of the Supreme Court.

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What’s happened since the Supreme Court directed the government to facilitate his return?

The lower court judge, Judge Paul Xinis, reportedly “called for a two-week process of ‘expedited discovery,’ including questioning government officials under oath, to learn whether the government is doing enough to try to bring him back.” The government attempted to appeal this order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit but that request was denied. The appeals court also criticized the administration for even making the request.

In an accompanying opinion, Chief Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III—a Reagan appointee and well-known conservative—set forth what amounts to a legal manifesto calling for judicial officers nationwide to adhere to their duty to uphold the rule of law transcends partisan alignment.

What did the ruling say?

In just over six pages, the Fourth Circuit provided clear directions to the Trump administration on what it should do regarding Abrego Garcia’s return, reiterating the respect it must give to courts. Wilkinson wrote that, indeed, the Executive has “enormous powers to prosecute and to deport,” but cautioned that “with power comes restraints.”