The Supreme Court on Friday limited the ability of judges in lower courts to issue blocks on government actions. Known as injunctions, these judicial tools used to be able to apply nationwide while a lawsuit made its way through court.
The 6-3 ruling came as federal judges have issued dozens of injunctions blocking several key parts of President Trump’s agenda, including his administration’s attempts to freeze federal funds and to limit birthright citizenship via executive order.
The birthright citizenship issue is the one that prompted the Supreme Court ruling, which says district court judges can’t bar the government from taking an action against people who were not part of the particular lawsuit. Judges may grant relief only to the specific plaintiffs in the case before them.
But the court didn’t completely close the door to broader injunctions. The main pathway still open to a nationwide block involves a class-action lawsuit.
What is a class-action lawsuit?
It’s a lawsuit in which an individual files a claim on behalf of a group of people with similar or nearly identical claims. The group can then be certified by a judge as a “class” and represented in a single case.
Class-action lawsuits are brought by plaintiffs, often a small group, who represent the broader class, standing in for many more people. Some, such as those filed against a company that sold a defective product, seek damages. Others seek injunctions preventing a particular action.
Common class-action cases include lawsuits seeking damages for people affected by environmental disasters, security fraud or aircraft accidents. Class-action lawsuits trying to block Mr. Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship have been filed in Maryland and New Hampshire, and more are expected.
How does a class-action lawsuit work?
Before proceeding, it must meet certain requirements and be approved by a court. These requirements are listed under Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
One of the most significant requirements is that a defendant’s action must affect more people than can be realistically named in a lawsuit. The steps required to certify a class make such a lawsuit a higher bar, and more complex than seeking a universal injunction.
The length of time it takes for a court to approve, or certify, a class-action lawsuit varies, said William Rubenstein, a professor at Harvard who specializes in class-action law. It could take as little as a few weeks, he said, or as long as several years.
One of the potential difficulties in certification is demonstrating how common issues are across the class, Mr. Rubenstein said. The proponents of a class-action case have to show that those common issues make one lawsuit more efficient than each individual filing on their own.
In urgent circumstances, though, courts can certify a class on the same day that a lawsuit is filed. That happened in March, when a lawsuit challenged the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport migrants. A court can issue preliminary relief — such as keeping the status quo in place to prevent possible harm — to a whole class before the certification process is complete.
One Supreme Court justice who voted to limit injunctions warned district judges not to lower their standards for class-action cases as a workaround. Justice Samuel Alito asserted in a concurring opinion that if judges do that, the Supreme Court could continue to intervene.
Are there other ways for judges to block the Trump administration on a broader scale?
The Supreme Court’s ruling left open two other pathways that could allow judges to apply injunctions more broadly, and not just to cover the parties in a lawsuit.
The court said it was not restricting injunctions in cases brought under the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs rule-making by the executive branch. The law allows judges to block actions by agencies if they find them to be “arbitrary” or “capricious.”
It has been invoked in several of the challenges now pending against the Trump administration.
The other exception involves cases in which it would be impossible for the courts to protect the plaintiffs without protecting everyone affected by an executive action. The Supreme Court compared this scenario to a lawsuit demanding that a neighbor stop playing loud music at night, which could benefit other neighbors as well.
One of the arguments made in a lawsuit by 22 states that challenged the Trump administration’s attempt to revise birthright citizenship could potentially fall under this exception. The states argue that a “patchwork injunction,” applying to some states and not others, would put a burden on them because of the amount of tracking it would require of the citizenship status of individuals and regulations in other states.
The Supreme Court did not address that argument, instructing the lower courts to consider it instead — and whether it alone would be enough to preserve the status quo nationwide.
Charlie Savage and Abbie VanSickle contributed reporting.
Sonia A. Rao reports on disability issues.
The post Trump Foes May Bring More Class-Action Suits. How Do They Work? appeared first on New York Times.
