The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday delivered a major victory to former President Trump by blocking nationwide injunctions that had been used to halt his executive order narrowing birthright citizenship.
The ruling, authored by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, restricts lower courts from issuing broad orders against the executive branch, marking a significant boost to Trump’s immigration agenda.
Barrett, Trump’s third appointee to the court, rejected claims that such injunctions are necessary to check presidential power, stating courts must not exceed their authority.
Opponents, however, quickly pivoted. Plaintiffs filed new lawsuits seeking class-wide relief, which could still block Trump’s order on a broad scale. Democratic-led states and the ACLU vowed to keep fighting, raising the possibility the issue returns to the Supreme Court.
Conservative justices warned lower courts against exploiting class action loopholes, while liberal justices strongly dissented. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson called the ruling an “existential threat to the rule of law,” sparking a sharp rebuke from Barrett, who accused her of embracing “an imperial Judiciary.”
Trump celebrated the decision as a blow to “radical left judges” and a green light to advance his stalled policy agenda. Despite the ruling, the legal battle over birthright citizenship—and the limits of executive power—is far from over.
