The Supreme Court hears a matter of citizenship of birth law. What were the main dishes to remember?

In a long oral argument that went from procedural issues to questions about the Trump administration’s commitment to the rule of law, the United States Supreme Court discussed a national break in the executive order of President Donald Trump redefining citizenship of the right of birth.
Hearing one of the most important cases of the term, the judges discussed only in Snatchs which has the potential to be one of President Trump's most consecutive executive actions. Instead, in addition to two hours of questions, the High Court focused on a question of procedure which could have major consequences on the way in which the courts are solving the prosecution involving the federal government.
The Citizenship Citizenship Order, said hours after the inauguration of Mr. Trump on January 20, would reinterpret the 14th amendment and make children of temporary or illegal immigrants ineligible for automatic American citizenship. Twenty-two states and groups for the defense of immigrants have continued, and a trio of federal judges prevented the order from taking effect. Because the courts are likely to reverse the order as unconstitutional, said the judges, they issued injunctions at the national level preventing him from taking effect while their decisions are on appeal.
Why we wrote this
Forum purchases harm in the United States, a majority of judges seemed to agree on Thursday. But a majority also seemed to be suitable that the 14th amendment does not need to be reinterpreting.
It is these injunctions at the national level that the Trump administration asks the Supreme Court to re -examine. More specifically, the administration maintains that the injunctions must be reduced. Although they are in force, the Government says that it cannot start to detail the implementation of the order of citizenship of birth law. The narrowing of the injunctions would also, in theory, allow the government to start to enforce order in parts of the country.
But this procedural question could also have deep consequences on the functioning of the federal judiciary. The injunctions at the national level have become increasingly common – and increasingly controversial, including on the high court – but they can also play an important role in preserving the legal status quo while the courts weigh major legal and constitutional issues.
During the argument Thursday, judges largely agreed that national injunctions are problematic. However, they did not agree on what should replace them. And two conservative judges seemed sympathetic to the idea that this case – with 22 states pursuing – could in fact deserve a scanning injunction.
“Why would they not be entitled to an injunction of the scope of that which has currently been registered?” Judge Amy CONEY BARRETT asked General D. John SAUER, who argued the case on behalf of the Trump administration.
Hiding in the metaphorical corner of the argument was the question of whether the order of citizenship of the right of birth is constitutional. He appeared sparingly, but when he did it, some judges seemed to be skeptical that the Trump administration would win on the bottom.
“Legally and historically doubtful”?
Animosity towards national injunctions has been bipartite. Republican presidents and democrats have, in recent decades, deplored individual federal judges preventing their policies – such as the relief of student loans under President Joe Biden and immigration reform under President Barack Obama – to take effect throughout the country. The increased prevalence of injunctions at the national level has in turn, researchers agree, encouraged what is known as “shopping forum” by opponents of two ideologies.
This animosity has reached a new height in the second Trump administration. At the end of March, the federal judges had issued 17 injunctions on a national scale (also called “universal”) against Mr. Trump, according to The Congress Research Service. With the order of citizenship of birth law, the Trump administration maintains that the problem of universal injunctions has reached “epidemic proportions”.
The Trump administration is not the only one to question this judicial power. Biden administration has also met forum purchases, with 28 national injunctions during his four years.
Some judges have expressed skepticism in the past, and these judges were heard this morning.
Judge Clarence Thomas – who heard his 2018 competition Declaring that the universal injunctions are “legally and historically doubtful” referenced several times during the argument – again wondering if the universal injunctions have strong land in the American legal history.
“So we survived the 1960s without universal injunctions?” He asked Mr. Sauer. (Some legal experts argue that the first national injunction was published in 1913; others, like M. Sauer, let's say 1963.)
Judge Samuel Alito criticized the judges of the district court exercising power throughout the country through national orders, describing them as acting on “an occupational disease”.
“It's the disease to think that” I'm right and I can do what I want “, he said. But while the federal judges on the courts with several members are restricted by their colleagues, he added: “A trial judge located in a courtroom of first instance is the monarch of this kingdom”.
Other judges have countered than universal injunctions are an important tool for the federal judicial power. The alternatives – such as individuals defying government action by themselves or as a legal class – would give the government more freedom to enforce illegal orders.
Judge Sonia Sotomayor offered a hypothetical. If a president signs an order that the soldiers confiscate each private firearm of the country, she asked Mr. Sauer: “We and the courts must sit down and wait for each applicant whose pistol is taken into account?”
Even then, some judges have posed, if the courts are not limited to the granting of relief only to specific individuals or to specific groups, this would mean that the rest of the country is always subject to government action while the courts determine if the action is legal.
The real concern, judge Ketanji Brown Jackson said: “Does this transform our judicial system into a capture-me-si-can-cannon regime, where everyone must have a lawyer and take legal action to justify their rights.”
“I understood you?”
In addition to two hours of argument, the debate has oscillated between practice and deep, between procedural issues and constitutional issues, and to what extent the Trump administration would honor court decisions.
According to the government, the judges here are invited to resolve a “Modest” request. The court should “restrict the scope” of national injunctions, “limiting [them] to the parties actually in the power of the courts. “”
But demand raises a multitude of broader questions.
More immediately: to say that the Supreme Court “restricts” the injunctions on a national scale in the case of citizenship of birth law, what then? In this case and in future cases where a large number of people claim to be targeted by illegal action, what emergency reparation could it provide the federal courts?
An option would be that a court allowed a group of individuals in a similar way to bring a collective appeal against the government, a process known in the federal code under the name of Rule 23. A second option would be to allow states to request emergency help. A third option would be for the courts to reign on the bottom of the action much faster than normal, a solution that the chief judge John Roberts seemed to favor.
“We have been able to move much faster” than in the past, he said. “I think we did the case of Tiktok in a month.”
Several judges have wondered if these replacements were achievable, or if they preserve the injunctions at the national level in all except. If the actions of rule 23 and prosecution of the States could continue, the Alito judge asked: “Would the practical problem be rectified to a substantial degree?” “
Another problem with which the judges were confronted was the continuous reluctance of the Trump administration to follow the orders of the lower courts with which he does not agree. For the first time since Trump began his second term, the judges questioned the administration directly on this alleged challenge.
While affirming that rule 23 would be an appropriate tool for processing emergency situations, Sauer conceded that the Trump administration would also dispute certain class certifications according to the “appropriate” criteria of the rule “. He also suggested to judge Kagan that the administration did not feel obliged to follow a decision of the Court of Appeal if it provided compensation beyond the parties involved in the case.
After a few minutes in which Brett Kavanaugh judge explained how the right of birth citizenship order would be implemented on the ground, Judge Barrett is in return.
“Did I understand correctly … that the government wanted to reserve its right not to follow the previous one in the second circuit because you might disagree?” She asked Mr. Sauer.
This raises the potential of a wrestling, noted Judge Elena Kagan. To resolve an emergency pursuit against the federal government “depends in a way on the government's own actions,” she said.
If a discreet group successfully prevents a decree from being applied against them, “the government has no incitement to [appeal the] case to the Supreme Court because it does not really lose, “she added. The government” can always apply her [order] Against the vast majority of people to whom it applies. »»
The court is expected to make a decision by the end of June.