Supreme Court Hobbles Orders from Lower Courts

The Supreme Court granted a wish for Donald Trump by stripping federal judges of their power to issue injunctions and restraining orders effective nationwide.

Such court orders are now restricted to only being effective for specific plaintiffs, such as the states or organizations that bring a case.

The Supreme Court did not rule on the merits of Trump’s desire to deprive some people of birthright citizenship by executive order even though the 14th Amendment does not make exceptions to that right. However, Trump’s efforts to chop out some birthright citizenship is what led to slicing the hamstrings of federal courts today.

The majority opinion written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett granted “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.” Trump’s executive order will not take effect until 30 days after this ruling.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s dissent was blistering and included:

The court’s decision to permit the executive to violate the constitution with respect to anyone who has not yet sued is an existential threat to the rule of law. Given the critical role of the judiciary in maintaining the rule of law … it is odd, to say the least, that the court would grant the executive’s wish to be freed from the constraints of law by prohibiting district courts from ordering complete compliance with the constitution.

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Make no mistake: Today’s ruling allows the Executive to deny people rights that the Founders plainly wrote into our Constitution, so long as those individuals have not found a lawyer or asked a court in a particular manner to have their rights protected. This perverse burden shifting cannot coexist with the rule of law. In essence, the Court has now shoved lower court judges out of the way in cases where executive action is challenged, and has gifted the Executive with the prerogative of sometimes disregarding the law. As a result, the Judiciary—the one institution that is solely responsible for ensuring our Republic endures as a Nation of laws—has put both our legal system, and our system of government, in grave jeopardy.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the court’s ruling was “a travesty for the rule of law.” She also wrote:

The gamesmanship in this request is apparent and the Government makes no attempt to hide it. Yet, shamefully, this Court plays along. Because I will not be complicit in so grave an attack on our system of law, I dissent.

Plaintiffs in Casa, Inc. et al. versus Donald J. Trump et al. promptly asked federal District Court Judge Deborah Boardman to issue an emergency block against Trump’s executive order to cut away some birthright citizenship. They also refiled their lawsuit a class action to include every pregnant person and every child born in a family without permanent legal status, all over the country.

Click here for more details.

Click here to read the ruling.