Conservative justices on the Supreme Court appeared open to curbing lower courts’ ability to block Trump administration policies as the White House faces challenges to its efforts to curtail immigration and turbocharge fossil fuel development.
During oral arguments Thursday, the justices weighed whether lower courts had overstepped by imposing nationwide injunctions against the president’s executive orders that seek to restrict birthright citizenship, which is guaranteed under the 14th Amendment.
Justice Neil Gorsuch likened an individual judge issuing a ruling that applies across the country to a finding that “everybody, everywhere, nationwide, perhaps cosmically, stands to benefit.’“
The case, Trump v. CASA Inc., could have important implications for opponents of the Trump administration’s efforts to overhaul the federal workforce, slash agency grants and scrap environmental protections, and who have relied on judges to block these changes.
