Adams was scheduled to go on trial in April until new leadership at the Justice Department under the Trump administration ordered prosecutors in New York in February to drop the case, sparking a public outcry and resignations of prosecutors.
This latest case, in which lawyers argue their client had no proven links to MS-13, adds to the growing judicial and public scrutiny about the deportations to El Salvador's notorious mega-prison.
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panel denied the Trump administration's push to restart deportations of alleged gang members under a rarely used wartime authority known as the Alien Enemies Act.
The fight over the rarely used wartime power has become central to Trump's immigration crackdown agenda and his efforts to stretch the powers of the executive branch.
Friday's hearing over the merits of the judge's temporary restraining order comes as the case has become a flashpoint between the judiciary and executive branches.
Judge James Boasberg had earlier asked the Trump administration to provide more details about weekend flights that deported hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador — despite his order to turn the planes around.
The rare speech at the Justice Department comes as the Trump administration has spent the last several weeks trying to reconfigure the agency, including demoting attorneys who worked on cases related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and firing officials who investigated the president himself.
While Trump's executive order takes aim at Perkins Coie, the judge said it "casts a chilling harm of blizzard proportion across the entire legal profession."
Perkins Coie's lawsuit is in response to President Trump's executive order that accused the firm of "dishonest and dangerous activity" that sought to overturn laws and elections and of allegedly discriminatory DEI policies.
It is the first legal hurdle thrown up to the Trump administration as it seeks to send thousands of migrants to a detention facility on the naval base near Cuba.
At the center of legal challenges against Trump's executive actions is whether he's telling federal agencies to violate a key legal standard established nearly 80 years ago.
The report on federal charges against Trump for election interference in 2020 offers special counsel Jack Smith a last chance to explain his decisions after dropping the case.
