by
Brendan
McDermid-Pool/Getty
Images)
President
Trump’s
courtiers
do
not
lack
for
chutzpah.
After
four
years
in
which
conservatives
camped
out
in
Amarillo
and
Fort
Worth
collecting
nationwide
injunctions
to
block
everything
from
student
loan
relief,
to
credit
card
fee
caps,
to
medication
abortion,
they
have
suddenly
gotten
religion
on
judicial
overreach.
Here’s
the
intro
to
a
SCOTUS
petition
filed
last
night:
Universal
injunctions
have
reached
epidemic
proportions
since
the
start
of
the
current
Administration.
Courts
have
graduated
from
universal
preliminary
injunctions
to
universal
temporary
restraining
orders,
from
universal
equitable
relief
to
universal
monetary
remedies,
and
from
governing
the
whole
Nation
to
governing
the
whole
world.
District
courts
have
issued
more
universal
injunctions
and
TROs
during
February
2025
alone
than
through
the
first
three
years
of
the
Biden
Administration.
That
sharp
rise
in
universal
injunctions
stops
the
Executive
Branch
from
performing
its
constitutional
functions
before
any
courts
fully
examine
the
merits
of
those
actions,
and
threatens
to
swamp
this
Court’s
emergency
docket.
Only
after
several
pages
of
histrionics
does
the
government
come
to
the
point:
They’d
like
the
Supreme
Court
to
let
them
abolish
birthright
citizenship,
despite
the
14th
Amendment
and
125
years
of
Supreme
Court
precedent,
and
they’re
super
pissed
that
federal
judges
keep
telling
them
to
get
bent.
In
the
Western
District
of
Washington,
Judge
John
Coughenour,
a
Reagan
appointee,
wondered,
“Where
were
the
lawyers?”
when
such
a
“blatantly
unconstitutional
order”
was
cooked
up.
“If
the
government
wants
to
change
the
exceptional
American
grant
of
birthright
citizenship,
it
needs
to
amend
the
Constitution
itself,”
he
scolded.
“That’s
how
the
Constitution
works,
and
that’s
how
the
rule
of
law
works.”
The
Ninth
Circuit
declined
the
administration’s
request
to
stay
Judge
Coughenour’s
nationwide
injunction,
as
did
the
First
and
Fourth
Circuits
when
the
DOJ
appealed
a
similar
orders
from
Massachusetts
and
Maryland
judges.
“[I]t
it
is
notable
that
the
government
is
not
prepared
to
argue
that
it
will
likely
prevail
on
the
merits
of
the
Executive
Order
itself,”
the
majority
wrote
in
the
Fourth
Circuit
order.
We
are
aware
of
no
case
–
and
the
government
has
not
cited
one
–
in
which
a
court
has
stayed
a
preliminary
injunction
of
a
policy,
already
found
likely
unlawful,
in
which
the
movant
did
not
argue
for
the
policy’s
legality.
Notably,
Judge
Paul
Niemeyer
dissented
on
just
the
grounds
cited
by
the
government
in
its
SCOTUS
petition:
“I
would
grant
the
government’s
modest
motion,
which
seeks
only
to
cabin
the
order’s
inappropriate
reach.”
And
that’s
the
angle
the
administration
is
taking
here,
even
quoting
Niemeyer’s
“modest”
language
on
the
first
page
of
the
petition.
They
argue
that
undocumented
parents
should
have
to
sue
individually
to
gain
citizenship
for
their
newborns.
Or,
barring
that,
the
administration
would
like
to
be
permitted
to
withhold
Social
Security
numbers
and
passports
from
children
born
in
red
states,
which
haven’t
signed
onto
any
birthright
citizenship
litigation.
It’s
a
naked
appeal
to
Justices
Thomas,
Alito,
and
Gorsuch,
each
of
whom
have
written
in
concurrence
or
dissent
inveighing
against
nationwide
relief
and
in
support
of
unchecked
executive
power
—
at
least
when
a
Republican
is
in
the
White
House.
That
modest
relief
would
correct
the
district
courts’
massive
remedial
foul.
Nationwide
or
universal
remedies
exceed
“the
power
of
Article
III
courts,”
conflict
with
“longstanding
limits
on
equitable
relief,”
and
impose
a
severe
“toll
on
the
federal
court
system.”
Trump
v.
Hawaii,
585
U.S.
667,
713
(2018)
(Thomas,
J.,
concurring);
see
Department
of
State
v.
AIDS
Vaccine
Advocacy
Coalition,
No.
24A831,
slip
op.
7
(2025)
(Alito,
J.,
dissenting);
Poe,
144
S.
Ct.
at
923-924
(Gorsuch,
J.
concurring);
DHS,
140
S.
Ct.
at
599-601
(Gorsuch,
J.,
concurring).
Subtle.
Of
course,
forcing
undocumented
parents
to
out
themselves
and
sue
the
government
to
secure
citizenship
for
their
babies
would
force
all
undocumented
parents
giving
birth
at
hospitals
to
out
themselves,
allowing
ICE
to
immediately
deport
them
before
a
court
could
offer
any
relief.
And
if
the
executive
order
were
later
found
to
be
unconstitutional,
as
every
court
which
considered
the
matter
has
agreed,
then
parents
issued
second
class
birth
certificates
for
their
children
would
have
to
present
themselves
again
to
authorities
to
receive
citizenship
documents
for
their
babies.
But
those
are
features,
not
bugs.
And
meanwhile,
the
absolute
worst
people
in
the
House
of
Representatives
just
filed
an
amicus
brief
to
vindicate
their
“strong
interest
in
the
outcome
of
this
case
because
Congress,
as
a
co-equal
branch
of
government,
has
an
interest
in
the
courts
upholding
the
Constitution.
Specifically,
the
historical
record
confirms
that
the
Fourteenth
Amendment
does
not
confer
citizenship
on
the
children
of
aliens
unlawfully
present
in
the
United
States.”
Great
job,
Chief
Justice
Roberts!
You
made
racism
great
again.
Trump
v.
Casa,
Inc.
[SCOTUS
Docket]
Liz
Dye lives
in
Baltimore
where
she
produces
the
Law
and
Chaos substack and podcast.