High Court congregates to rule on the remaining 6 cases, featuring controversies such as birthright citizenship.
Friday sees the Supreme Court tackling the last six cases of their term, one of which is birthright citizenship. Joining NPR's Steve Inskeep for a chat about this is Nina Totenberg.
Here's a breakdown of the Court's decision:
In a 6-3 conservative majority vote, the Supreme Court has decided that federal courts do not have the authority to issue universal or nationwide injunctions blocking government policies across the nation. Instead, these injunctions should be more limited, covering only the parties involved in the court case.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, writing for the majority, stressed that when courts find the Executive Branch to be acting unlawfully, they should not overstep their bounds by imposing broad restrictions on executive actions beyond the specific cases they're adjudicating.
However, it's essential to note that the Court didn't rule on the constitutional validity of the executive order ending birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment. As a result, the central question—whether the executive order itself is constitutional—remains open for debate in lower courts.
The executive order denies citizenship to children born in the U.S. when their mothers are unlawfully present, and their fathers are neither U.S. citizens nor lawful permanent residents at birth. The order allows a 30-day period for implementation.
While the Court's decision leaves room for future lawsuits and class action challenges against the birthright citizenship order, Justice Sonia Sotomayor voiced her dissent, asserting that the executive order had been previously recognized as "patently unconstitutional" by courts that have examined it.
In essence, the Supreme Court has limited the mechanism by which federal courts can block the Trump administration's executive order on birthright citizenship. However, the constitutionality of changing birthright citizenship itself remains unresolved and subject to further debate in lower courts.
The Supreme Court's decision on the index case focusing on birthright citizenship has left the constitutionality of the executive order unresolved, with the conservative majority limiting the mechanism for federal courts to issue nationwide injunctions related to the order. Meanwhile, Justice Sonia Sotomayor has voiced her dissent, viewing the executive order as previously recognized as "patently unconstitutional" by lower courts.
