Expect nothing from severely tds affected
chief jello john roberts
Posted on 05/15/2025 12:32:43 PM PDT by george76
Today, the United States Supreme Court will hear three consolidated cases in Trump v. CASA on the growing use of national or universal injunctions. This is a matter submitted on the “shadow docket” and the underlying cases concern the controversy over “birthright citizenship.” However, the merits of those claims are not at issue. Instead, the Trump Administration has made a “modest request” for the Court to limit the scope of lower-court injunctions to their immediate districts and parties, challenging the right of such courts to bind an Administration across the nation.
The case is the consolidation of three matters: Trump v. CASA out of Maryland; Trump v. Washington out of Washington State, and Trump v. New Jersey, out of Massachusetts. These cases also present standing issues since the Administration challenges the argument that there is a cognizable “injury” to individuals who may travel to the states bringing the actions.
However, the main question is the scope of injunctions.
As I have previously written, district court judges have issued a record number of injunctions in the first 100 days of the Trump Administration. Under President George W. Bush, there were only six such injunctions, which increased to 12 under Obama. However, when Trump came to office, he faced 64 such orders in his first term.
When Biden and the Democrats returned to office, it fell back to 14. That was not due to more modest measures. Biden did precisely what Trump did in seeking to negate virtually all of his predecessors’ orders and then seek sweeping new legal reforms. He was repeatedly found to have violated the Constitution, but there was no torrent of preliminary injunctions at the start of his term.
Yet, when Trump returned to office, the number of national injunctions soared again in the first 100 days and surpassed the number for the entirety of Biden’s term.
This is a rare argument. First, it is a shadow docket filing that usually results in summary decisions without oral argument. Moreover, this matter came after what is commonly viewed as the final day for oral arguments. The Court granted a rare late oral argument, reflecting that multiple justices view this matter sufficiently serious to warrant a break from standard operating procedures.
Rather than arguing a “question presented” on birthright citizenship, the Administration is solely looking for limits on the district courts as appeals continue on the “important constitutional questions” raised by birthright citizenship.
The Administration argues that the Constitution does not give judges the power to issue universal injunctions and that courts are limited to addressing the cases before them in a given district. The Administration acknowledges that class actions can create the basis for universal injunctions, offering a moderate resolution to the Court. In such cases, if the parties can meet the standard for a national class, they can seek a national or universal injunction.
In today’s arguments (which I will be covering for Fox and on X), we can expect to hear from justices who have previously been critical of universal injunctions, including Justice Clarence Thomas, who, in his concurring opinion in Trump v. Hawaii, called them “legally and historically dubious.”
Likewise, Justices Gorsuch and Alito have criticized such injunctions. In a prior dissent to an emergency filing in Department of State v. AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, Alito was joined by Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh in stating that the government “has a strong argument that the District Court’s order violates the principle that a federal court may not issue an equitable remedy that is ‘more burdensome than necessary to’ redress the plaintiff’s injuries.”
Many of us will be watching three members the most closely: Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett. Roberts is the ultimate institutionalist, and we should see in his argument how he views the impact of such injunctions on the court system as a whole. He is very protective of the courts’ inherent authority but may also have misgivings about the scope of these orders.
During the Biden Administration, Justice Kagan has previously criticized universal injunctions. In an interview at Northwestern University Law School, Kagan flagged the “forum shopping” by litigants in filing cases before favorable courts:
“You look at something like that and you think, that can’t be right. In the Trump years, people used to go to the Northern District of California, and in the Biden years, they go to Texas. It just can’t be right that one district judge can stop a nationwide policy in its tracks and leave it stopped for the years that it takes to go through the normal process.”
Justice Barrett previously joined with Kavanaugh in stating that the power of district courts to enter a universal injunction “is an important question that could warrant our review in the future.”
The argument today will start at 10 am and I will be doing a running review of the arguments on X.
U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer will argue the government’s case.
Jeremy Feigenbaum, New Jersey’s solicitor general, will argue for the state and local governments and Kelsi Corkran, the Supreme Court director at Georgetown’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, will argue for the private individuals and groups.
Prayers up!
I’d trust gas station sushi before I’d trust the Republican Party or Supreme Court for a positive experience.
Sounds like people with no standing went judge shopping.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
4 women on the court and John Roberts is always a 40/60 proposition at best.
This mess with the courts has illuminated my pet peeve with the way our government functions.
The problem, as I see it, lies in the fact that we allow the Supreme Court to define the limits of its own power.
They are lawyers who work for the government and I’m supposed to trust them to do the right thing?
SAME WAY THAT CONGRESS SETS IT’S OWN PAY ?????
I would say "injury to individuals who may travel to the states" phrased the problem backwards.
Right. The judicial branch shouldn’t decide the limits of its own power..
But I think the legislative branch is at fault, for ceding its role as lawmaker to the other two branches.
Failure of congress to pass budgets, pass legislation leaves the executive branch in the position of fulfilling its mandate via executive orders. And since making the law is not the role of the executive branch, it is left to the judicial to challenge the executive.
Ultimately, this mess is the fault of the voters, for tolerating representatives who do not represent them.
By some miracle, we have a President who tells the truth - promises made. Promises kept.
Somehow, we need to elect representatives who tell the truth and keep their promises.. then we would have sane laws, sane regulations, sane budgets, and there would be no need for the President to act by executive order - and no need for judicial to challenge those orders.
You’re right. We’re getting the government we deserve.
I voted for Thillis. Twice.
We’re all guilty of voting for RINOs.. we’re not mind readers - we can’t always know people are lying until it’s too late.
It’s a sad state of affairs when so few people tell the truth that lying politicians and journalists become the norm - it’s what’s expected - and we lower our standards accordingly.
I was watching some Netflix show where a journalist was describing his profession as the public’s moral compass.
Wouldn’t that be nice.
“The problem, as I see it, lies in the fact that we allow the Supreme Court to define the limits of its own power.”
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Another problem is that this kind of broad power can enable judges to effectively stifle change on a national level, despite what voters want. The rogue judges can therefore act to maintain whatever status quo suits them and the interests of their liberal friends. In short, these judges can thwart the will of the people under the protective umbrella of the USSC.
“and we lower our standards accordingly”
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Writ large. As a society we’ve been steadily lowering them for a long time.
“We’re getting the government we deserve.”
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Most people don’t really care all that much about the rot in the system. The only thing that matters to them is bread and circuses.
Thank you
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