The US Supreme Court has decided to limit the power of federal judges to grant nationwide injunctions.
The Court appears to have delivered US President, Donald Trump a major victory by ruling that individual district court judges lack the power to issue nationwide injunctions, which Trump has complained have blocked federal government policies nationwide including his executive order purporting to end the right to automatic birthright citizenship.
In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court granted a request by the Trump administration to narrow the scope of three nationwide injunctions that halted enforcement of his birthright citizenship directive while litigation challenging the policy plays out.
Furthermore, this decision would mean that going forward, judges will only be able to grant relief to the parties who bring a particular lawsuit and may not extend those decisions to protect other individuals without going through the process of converting a suit into a class action.
The conservative majority wrote that “universal injunctions likely exceed the equitable authority that Congress has given to federal courts”, granting “the government’s applications for a partial stay of the injunctions entered below, but only to the extent that the injunctions are broader than necessary to provide complete relief to each plaintiff with standing to sue.”
Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote, “When a court concludes that the Executive Branch has acted unlawfully, the answer is not for the court to exceed its power, too.”
“The Court today puts an end to the ‘increasingly common’ practice of federal courts issuing universal injunctions.”
Justice Amy Coney Barrett
The three liberal Justices; Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.
In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, “The court’s decision is nothing less than an open invitation for the government to bypass the Constitution.”
Sotomayor added that this is so because the administration may be able to enforce a policy even when it has been challenged and found to be unconstitutional by a lower court.
Sotomayor called the court’s majority decision “a travesty for the rule of law.”
Fate Of Trump’s Restrictions On Birthright Citizenship Unclear
The ruling leaves unclear the fate of Trump’s attempt to restrict restrictions on birthright citizenship, with the conservative majority leaving open the possibility that the birthright citizenship changes could remain blocked nationwide.
The court ordered lower courts to reconsider the scope of their injunctions and specified that Trump’s order cannot take effect until 30 days after today’s ruling.
The ruling, written by conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett did not let Trump’s policy seeking a ban on birthright citizenship go into effect immediately and did not address the policy’s legality. As such, the fate of the policy remains imprecise.
Trump’s January executive order sought to deny birthright citizenship to babies born on US soil if their parents lack legal immigration status – defying the 14th amendment’s guarantee that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States” are citizens – and made justices wary during the hearing.
Three judges blocked Trump’s order nationwide after he signed it on inauguration day, which would enforce citizenship restrictions in states where courts hadn’t specifically blocked them.
The policy targeted children of both undocumented immigrants and legal visa holders, demanding that at least one parent be a lawful permanent resident or US citizen.
Trump and his supporters have argued that there should be tougher standards for becoming an American citizen, which he called “a priceless and profound gift” in the executive order he signed on his first day in office.
The real fight in Trump v CASA Inc, wasn’t about immigration but judicial power. Trump’s lawyers demanded that nationwide injunctions blocking presidential orders be scrapped, arguing judges should only protect specific plaintiffs who sue – not the entire country.
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