Federal Judge James Boasberg, dubbed a «Radical left lunatic» by President Donald Trump, is presiding over several high-profile cases challenging actions made by the Trump administration, raising questions about how judges are assigned to cases.

The scrutiny comes as Boasberg, an Obama-appointed chief judge of the Washington, D.C., district court, oversees a challenge brought by several media outlets seeking to force the Justice Department to unseal the search warrant on the home of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.

«Judge James Boasberg is now involved with the Ilhan Omar case,» Steve Ferguson, a self-described business owner with more than 250,000 followers on X, wrote in a social media post. «Is everything rigged?»

In the federal court of the District of Columbia, cases are assigned to judges randomly by an electronic system managed by the clerk’s office operating under the direction of the Calendar and Case Management Committee, according to the rules of the court. The committee consists of three to five judges appointed by the chief justice.

FEDERAL AGENTS RAID ILHAN OMAR’S DC HOME AMID IMMIGRATION FRAUD INVESTIGATION

There are exceptions to the random-assignment process. For example, criminal grand jury matters are assigned to and overseen by the chief judge, currently Boasberg. This means Boasberg’s assignment to oversee the fight over unsealing the search warrant for Omar was «not a surprise» to Eric Wessan, Iowa’s solicitor general.

«But there are a lot of cases that seem to be going to judges maybe based on those cases having similarities, which is not what the local rules say,» Wessan told Digital.

When a case needs to be reassigned, the Calendar and Case Management Committee will determine how the reassignment is made.

Wessan suggested that concerns over how case assignments are made are valid, considering some of the high-profile cases against the Trump administration which have appeared in Boasberg’s docket.

«If one is just following anecdotally, there does seem to be a lot of high-profile cases in front of judges that seem to be expressing unusual amounts of frustration or disagreement with the administration,» Wessan said, urging greater transparency in how case assignments are made.

TRUMP’S FIGHT OVER RARELY USED 18THCENTURY DEPORTATION LAW LIVES ON IN LATEST COURT CLASH

The fight over unsealing the release of Omar’s search warrant is just one of several cases involving the Trump administration and now on Boasberg’s docket. Boasberg is also overseeing California’s lawsuit against the Trump administration over voter roll disputes. 

On Friday, he ordered the administration to provide the state with the names and supporting information for roughly 20,000 people whom the DOJ claims are noncitizens on California’s voter rolls by the end of the day.

Boasberg has issued several consequential rulings against the Trump administration, including a high-profile March 2025 order directing the administration to turn around deportation flights carrying alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador. The Trump administration fought against the order, pointing to the Alien Enemies Act as legal justification for the deportations. 

The dispute over the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act eventually reached the Supreme Court, which vacated Boasberg’s temporary restraining order blocking deportation flights, ruling that the case was brought in the wrong jurisdiction.

That same month, Boasberg was assigned a lawsuit seeking to preserve Signal messages after top Trump administration officials discussed plans for a Yemen strike in a group chat that accidentally included Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg. The judge later ordered the administration to preserve the messages.

The string of cases prompted Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio; Darrell Issa, R-Calif.; and Chip Roy, R-Texas, to send a letter in May 2025 to the court clerk asking for greater clarity on how judicial assignments are made. The lawmakers questioned whether assignments were truly random as the court’s rules state.

«The Committee cannot independently verify the randomness of case assignments because the composition of assignment decks is kept secret,» the lawmakers wrote.

«We must understand the nature of the case assignment process in the District Court — which is considering a number of cases challenging the Trump Administration’s policy decisions — to consider and develop appropriate legislation.»

FEDERAL JUDGE KICKED OFF ‘BOTCH JOB’ ANTI-DEI CASE AFTER STUNNING APPEALS COURT REBUKE

Meanwhile, Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., introduced legislation in July that would require federal district courts to assign cases randomly, without exceptions, naming it the Boasberg Act. The bill is stalled in committee.

«Judge Boasberg is the poster child for a rogue judge and exposed serious loopholes in our judicial system. Randomly assigning cases among judges ensures the American people can have confidence in the impartiality of our courts,» Schmitt said in a statement.

Under the rules of the D.C. Court, the chief justice does not have the power to reassign a case. The Calendar and Case Management Committee handles case reassignments. The court must notify the judges and attorneys involved, but it does not have to publicly explain why a case was reassigned. Wessan has called for greater transparency.

«The rules shouldn’t say one thing if it’s not true. But if it is true, they could just say so. I think the issue is with the exceptions. What happens in those exceptional cases and how often do they occur?» Wessan said.

«Given the frequency of the concerning episodes in the district court, erring on the side of transparency is probably prudent to the extent that there are exceptions to the normal random-assignment system.»

judiciary, federal courts, federal judges, ilhan omar, justice department, politics

The leader of a Christian ministry that built its own artificial intelligence application to guide users in their spiritual journey warns companies developing AI systems need to implement «ethical guidelines» to ensure their technology doesn’t harm people.

Ligonier Ministries President and CEO Chris Larson says the true highest intelligence is God and shared a new tool his group created to help answer questions people may have from a faith-based perspective.

«It’s interesting that [President Donald Trump] even referred to artificial intelligence now as ‘superintelligence,’» Larson told Digital. «Of course, Christians — and, really, all of us — have access to the ‘superintelligece,’ the one who has created the universe.»

CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY AIMS TO PRODUCE ‘IRREPLACEABLE’ GRADUATES AS AI RESHAPES HIGHER EDUCATION

The mission of the Florida-based organization, founded by the late Christian theologian R.C. Sproul, is to proclaim, teach and defend the holiness of God «in all its fullness to as many people as possible.»

Part of accomplishing that mission was building an app that the organization calls Grow.

«It’s dedicated to helping Christians to better understand the Bible and theology and to go deeper in their faith, put down roots, if you will,» Larson said of the new tool. «And, so, this app has 50 years of teaching in it from more than 800 different teachers, of course, grounded in Dr. R.C. Sproul’s lifetime of teaching.»

The app draws from a library of tens of thousands of pieces of content to help users in their faith journey looking to obtain answers to critical questions.

Inside Grow is an «intelligent answer assistant» that can answer questions from users from a faith-based perspective.

But building Grow for Christian users required putting a great deal of thought into the ethics of the model, Larson explained.

WILLIAM BENNETT, JON HAGE: AI CAN MIMIC A TEACHER, BUT IT CANNOT SHEPHERD A SOUL

«Now, it’s not trying to pretend it’s a person or anything like that. It is just trained on our library, and then helping Christians to trust the answers, and [it] will only go so far,» he said. 

«And, again, I think that’s an important guard as well. Because, for us, making sure that we have trusted theological answers and that the intelligent answer assistant is acting with integrity and not going outside of that.»

When users push the boundaries of the application, it directs them to real human support, a feature most large language model AI tools refuse to implement.

«And, so, we’ve given it a sandbox to work within. And any time that somebody tries to push it beyond the borders, we’re going to deflect or defer to a real human. Imagine that,» Larson said.

For example, if a user discusses suicide in Grow, the intelligent answer assistant will direct them to the suicide hotline or other real-world resources.

BISHOP ROBERT BARRON: POPE LEO SEES THE AI AGE CLEARLY — AND WARNS WE MUST SAVE OUR SOULS

Over the past several years, there have been a flurry of suicide deaths that victims’ family members say AI chatbots were at least partially responsible. 

In one case from last year, a teenager named Adam Raine died by suicide after months of discussing his suicidal thoughts on ChatGPT. According to a lawsuit from his parents, the chatbot provided him information about methods of suicide, validated aspects of planning the suicide and offered to help him draft a suicide note. OpenAI, ChatGPT’s parent company, disputes the characterization and says the chatbot directed him to crisis resources multiple times.

«So, we understood that it’s important to provide safety guardrails, but also we did not want this intelligent answer assistant to pretend that it was a person,» Larson said. «We don’t want it to take the place of a pastor or a local church elder or even a parent.»

WHO IS DARIO AMODEI, THE ANTHROPIC CEO PUSHING INDEPENDENT AI OVERSIGHT?

Larson said companies developing AI need to consider guardrails for their technology.

«Anybody developing AI tools today needs to think through ethical guidelines, and that’s more of the self-regulation and guardrails that we’ve been talking about,» he said.

«I think there’s a real concern today because you have great power that’s been entrusted to these different companies, and they’re not really disclosing their worldview,» he continued. «How do they know right from wrong?»

For Ligonier, the absolute truth upon which its AI model is built is the Christian faith.

«How are you determining what is right and wrong? As Christians, we believe we have a true answer — a source that we can turn to.»

If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

artificial intelligence, politics, tech, christianity, apps, faith, smart and safe tech

El presidente de Honduras, Nasry Asfura, ordenó priorizar el pago de aproximadamente US$1.85 millones que el Instituto Hondureño de Mercadeo Agrícola (IHMA) adeuda a productores de frijol que entregaron sus cosechas a la institución, confirmó el titular de la Secretaría de Agricultura y Ganadería (SAG), Moisés Molina.

El funcionario reconoció que la deuda continúa pendiente y explicó que las limitaciones presupuestarias afectaron el cumplimiento de distintas obligaciones del Gobierno, luego de que se destinaran recursos para atender los efectos de la sequía.

El compromiso de pago se mantiene y las autoridades esperan entregar próximamente el dinero a los agricultores.

Molina también informó que la junta directiva del IHMA trabaja en modificaciones para mejorar el funcionamiento de la institución, especialmente en los mecanismos de comercialización de los granos básicos y la rotación de los inventarios.

El titular de la SAG explicó que la deuda se mantiene desde la salida del anterior titular del instituto y señaló que la disponibilidad limitada de fondos incidió en el cumplimiento de varias responsabilidades gubernamentales.

Según Molina, la instrucción del presidente Asfura es dar prioridad a este pago, con el objetivo de que los productores reciban el dinero por el grano que entregaron. No obstante, el funcionario no precisó una fecha exacta para completar el desembolso.

El cumplimiento de esta obligación es relevante para los agricultores que dependen de los ingresos de sus cosechas y necesitan recuperar el dinero correspondiente a las entregas realizadas al Estado.

Además del pago pendiente, las autoridades analizan cambios para facilitar las operaciones comerciales del IHMA. Molina explicó que las restricciones legales para vender frijol a instituciones distintas de Banasupro dificultan la salida de los inventarios y limitan las opciones de comercialización.

La junta directiva trabaja en alternativas que permitan agilizar el funcionamiento de la institución y mejorar la rotación de los productos almacenados.

La intención es facilitar las ventas a otras entidades, aunque el ministro no detalló cuáles serían los cambios legales o administrativos que se aplicarían ni cuándo entrarían en vigor.

El IHMA cumple funciones relacionadas con el mercadeo agrícola, por lo que sus decisiones sobre la compra y venta de granos básicos tienen incidencia en la relación con los productores y en el abastecimiento del mercado hondureño.

Molina afirmó que la SAG mantiene vigilancia sobre la disponibilidad de frijol para cubrir el consumo nacional y advirtió que, si la producción hondureña resulta insuficiente, el país recurrirá a importaciones.

“Estamos alerta porque si en algún momento no logramos tener la producción que se necesita para suplir el consumo, lo vamos a traer de donde sea necesario”, declaró el secretario.

El funcionario no anunció una importación inmediata ni especificó cantidades o países de procedencia. Su declaración plantea la posibilidad de recurrir al mercado internacional si la producción nacional no alcanza para satisfacer la demanda.

La decisión dependería de las necesidades de abastecimiento y de la disponibilidad de producto. Por ahora, el ministro indicó que las autoridades permanecen atentas a la capacidad de producción para garantizar el suministro del grano.

Durante sus declaraciones, Molina también se refirió a las versiones sobre un posible acuerdo para incrementar el precio de los huevos entre noviembre y enero.

El secretario aseguró que la SAG no participa en esas negociaciones y manifestó desconocer si existe una conversación entre los avicultores y la Secretaría de Desarrollo Económico.

Molina explicó que los precios de los huevos pueden experimentar variaciones por factores relacionados con la oferta y la demanda.

Entre ellos mencionó el aumento del consumo y la reducción de las horas de luz, una condición que puede disminuir temporalmente la postura de las gallinas.

Sin embargo, el funcionario no confirmó que exista un acuerdo oficial para elevar los precios durante esos meses ni anunció medidas específicas sobre el comportamiento del mercado.

corresponsal:Desde Tegucigalpa, Honduras