The Federalist Society-controlled Supreme Court issued a ruling that will stop federal courts from protecting both U.S. citizens and visa holders from the Trump administration, corporations, and national interest groups. The 6-3 decision limits the coverage of federal court injunctions to protect only the plaintiffs in the case rather than the country at large.
For example, if one state sues the Trump administration to challenge the constitutionality of deporting documented visa holders and a judge issues an emergency order temporarily barring the Trump administration from doing that, the administration could continue the operation in the other 49 states.
The case in question focused on Trump’s executive order targeting birthright citizenship, but the Supreme Court’s ruling applies to all nationwide injunctions, including those that limited the administration’s ability to gut federal agencies.
The decision represents a fundamental shift in how US federal courts can constrain presidential power. Previously, any of the country’s more than 1,000 judges in its 94 district courts – the lowest level of federal court, which handles trials and initial rulings – could issue nationwide injunctions that immediately halt government policies across all 50 states.
The Guardian
Along with this ruling, the Trump administration is allowed to continue its efforts to ban birthright citizenship in 30 days, even though birthright citizenship was enshrined in the U.S. Constitution in 1868.
ICE will have the power to deny citizenship to newborns, strip citizenship from children born to migrants, and deport documented visa holders if their U.S.-born children are stripped of citizenship. The only people able to protect themselves from this crackdown on minority groups are those with the finances, resources, and legal standing to challenge the policy in court.
“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.”
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson
