The US Supreme Court’s landmark ruling blunting a potent weapon that federal judges have used to block government policies nationwide during legal challenges was in many ways a victory for President Donald Trump — except perhaps on the very policy he is seeking to enforce.
An executive order that the Republican president signed on his first day back in office in January would restrict birthright citizenship, a far-reaching plan that three federal judges, questioning its constitutionality, quickly halted nationwide through so-called “universal” injunctions.
But the Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday — while announcing a dramatic shift in how judges have operated for years deploying such relief — left enough room for the challengers to Trump’s directive to try to prevent it from taking effect while litigation over its legality plays out.
“I do not expect the president’s executive order on birthright citizenship will ever go into effect,” said Samuel Bray, a Notre Dame Law School professor and a prominent critic of universal injunctions, whose work the court’s majority cited extensively in Friday’s ruling.
Trump’s executive order directs federal agencies to refuse to recognise the citizenship of children born in the US who do not have at least one parent who is a US citizen or lawful permanent resident.
The three judges found that the order likely violates citizenship language in the US constitution’s 14th amendment.
The directive remains blocked while lower courts reconsider the scope of their injunctions, and the Supreme Court said it cannot take effect for 30 days — a window that gives the challengers time to seek further protection from those courts.
