(Bloomberg) — A sharply divided US Supreme Court limited the power of judges to block government policies nationwide, but left a fight over President Donald Trump’s restrictions on automatic birthright citizenship unresolved.
Most Read from Bloomberg
The 6-3 ruling said Trump’s restrictions on birthright citizenship won’t take effect for 30 days. The justices returned the cases to the lower courts to let judges consider whether to again block the rules — at least in part of the country if not the whole nation — in challenges pressed by a group of states.
By putting new limits on the power of judges to issue nationwide injunctions, the ruling could help Trump fend off other challenges to his ambitious agenda. Trump and his allies argued that a single judge generally shouldn’t have the power to block a federal government policy nationwide.
“Federal courts do not exercise general oversight of the executive branch,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for the court’s conservative majority. “They resolve cases and controversies consistent with the authority Congress has given them.”
The court’s three liberals blasted the ruling in dissent.
“With the stroke of a pen, the president has made a solemn mockery of our Constitution,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote. “Rather than stand firm, the court gives way.”
As the cases go back before lower court judges in the next 30 days, the justices said the administration in the meantime could take steps to plan for the policy, including issuing public guidance about how it will work.
The state challengers vowed to continue the fight once the cases go back to district courts. New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in a statement that they understood Friday’s decision as leaving open the possibility of orders with nationwide effect “to protect the plaintiffs themselves from harm.”
“We welcome the opportunity to continue making our case before the district court, particularly because the executive order will not take immediate effect, to show that the President’s approach to birthright citizenship is a recipe for chaos on the ground and harm to the states,” Platkin said. “We are confident that his flagrantly unconstitutional order will remain enjoined by the courts.”
14th Amendment
Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order would jettison what has been the widespread understanding that the Constitution’s 14th Amendment confers citizenship on virtually everyone born on US soil. Trump would restrict that to babies with at least one parent who is a US citizen or green card holder, meaning that even the newborn children of people on temporary visas wouldn’t become Americans.
