Before they were federal judges, James Emanuel Boasberg and Brett M. Kavanaugh were classmates at Yale Law School and housemates in a red brick off-campus townhouse, where they forged a bond that carries forward to this day.
Their friendship, according to interviews with six law school classmates, draws on a foundation of commonalities: Both men are the sons of attorneys and attended elite private high schools in Washington — Georgetown Preparatory for Justice Kavanaugh, St. Albans for Judge Boasberg. Both went to Yale as undergraduates. Both were first appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush. As judges, they overlapped for more than seven years at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington, D.C.
The two jurists, neither of whom commented for this story, “have a lot in common,” said Amy Jeffress, a former law school classmate, who said Judge Boasberg and Justice Kavanaugh have been close since she knew them in school.
Friends and colleagues describe Judge Boasberg, who goes by Jeb, as a moderate, known for his calm temperament and thoughtful jurisprudence. He is also a particularly well-respected jurist with deep ties to members of the conservative legal establishment, such as Justice Kavanaugh.
In 2018, President Trump elevated Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Last month, the president called for Judge Boasberg to be removed from the bench after he issued an order temporarily stopping the administration from using the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime law, to deport men accused of being Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador. Mr. Trump called Judge Boasberg, 62, “a Radical Left Lunatic, a troublemaker and agitator.”
President Trump on March 14, the day he signed a proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act to deport men accused of being gang members.Credit…Tierney L. Cross for The New York Times
