For more on the legal ramifications of the Trump administration's showdown with the judiciary,

I'm joined now by Steve Vlatic.

He's a constitutional law professor at Georgetown University.

Steve, welcome back.

Let's just pick up where Laura left off there, this extraordinary back and forth between the Department of Justice and Judge Boasberg here.

The judge wants more information on the flights. Department of Justice has until Boasberg here. The judge wants more information on the flights.

Department of Justice has until Thursday to produce it. When you look at this, does this seem to be

an administration in defiance of the judge's orders? I don't know that the administration really

has reached the point of open defiance. I think it's more like

what my six-year-old does, which is, you know, testing the boundaries of the authority, pushing

to see how much they can get away with, pushing to see sort of where the line is, but while

preserving plausible deniability that they're not actually saying they can't be bound.

And I think that's part of why you see this back and forth between President Trump and Chief Justice

Roberts. And, you know, where this ends, I think is really the big question now.

We've heard just late this afternoon the D.C. Circuit has scheduled arguments in the government's

effort to shut down Judge Boasberg for next Monday.

So, you know, I don't know that we're at the outright defiance stage yet,

but I do think this is more resistance from the executive branch than we've seen,

certainly in our lifetime and perhaps ever.

In seeking to test those boundaries, let me put to you what the administration

says, because they argue they have absolute constitutional right to protect national security,

to conduct foreign policy in the way they see fit. They say these deportation flights as part of that

...