Supremes consider whether one district judge can derail a president

Will the Supreme Court stop radicals in robes from subverting the president and imperiling the separation of powers via rule by universal injunction?Or will it continue allowing any one of 680 district court judges to nullify the votes of tens of millions of Americans by hamstringing the commander in chief with rulings infringing upon his powers to pursue policy and pick personnel?These questions loomed over the Supreme Court on Thursday, as justices heard oral arguments in cases challenging the president’s executive order curtailing birthright citizenship.Those arguments suggest we could be looking at a 5-4 decision hinging on Chief Justice John Roberts — one that could make or break Trump’s presidency, and our republican order.The Resistance has made universal injunctions its lawfare weapon of choice to combat Trump II.Left-wing plaintiffs have shopped hundreds of lawsuits to like-minded judges to secure 40 such injunctions in under 4 months, shutting down a slew of administration policies nationwide.That’s nearly triple the number of injunctions the Biden administration faced in its first three years.This comes on the heels of the Trump I administration, during which the president became the most enjoined man in U.S.history.

During his first term, courts hit Trump with more than half of all universal injunctions — 64 of them — entered between 1963 and 2023.In notable instances, the Supreme Court ultimately overturned these rulings.But the public did not get the policies they voted for enacted while those cases were litigated.All of this is a departure from legal and historical traditions.

As some scholars note, judges strictly adhered to ruling on cases and controversies for the parties before it up until the 1960s — and the practice of issuing universal injunctions only exploded in the last few decades.As the Trump administration has been stymied by a deluge of universal injunctions from often hostile judges, and the Supreme Court has dithered �...