Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett has led a conservative push to help Donald Trump curtail judges who have hampered his agenda, in a major victory for the U.S. president.
In a highly anticipated ruling on Friday, the Supreme Court put a partial end to the use of nationwide injunctions from federal courts limiting the decisions of the executive branch.
The 6-3 ruling, written by Coney Barrett, stemmed from Trump’s push to end birthright citizenship, which dictates that everyone born in the U.S. is a citizen, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
But the decision could have much broader implications, as Trump has long claimed that the courts are overstepping their authority by handing down “nationwide” orders that have temporarily blocked some of his policies.
In her opinion, Coney Barrett wrote: “Some say that the universal injunction ‘give[s] the Judiciary a powerful tool to check the Executive Branch.’ … But federal courts do not exercise general oversight of the Executive Branch; they resolve cases and controversies consistent with the authority Congress has given them. When a court concludes that the Executive Branch has acted unlawfully, the answer is not for the court to exceed its power, too.”
The ruling did not go so far as to make a decision on the constitutionality of Trump’s push to end birthright citizenship.
But the three liberal justices on the court dissented and have hit out at the ruling.
Describing the decision as “a travesty for the rule of law,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor suggested that Trump knew his birthright citizenship order was unconstitutional, and therefore pursued the issue of universal injunctions instead.
“The gamesmanship in this request is apparent, and the Government makes no attempt to hide it. Yet, shamefully, this Court plays along,” she said.
This story will be updated.
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