#Trump's order…directed federal agencies to refuse to recognize the #citizenship of #US-born #children who do not have at least one parent who is an American #citizen or lawful permanent resident.

The order was challenged by Democratic attorneys general from 22 states as well as individual pregnant #immigrants & advocacy groups.

#immigration #law #Constitution #BirthrightCitizenship #AbuseOfPower

The plaintiffs have said the directive violates a right enshrined in the US #Constitution's #14thAmendment, which was ratified in 1868 & long has been understood to confer citizenship to virtually anyone born in the #US.

Trammell noted that the admin has not contested whether the injunctions should have been issued, asking the justices only to scale back their nationwide effect to protect just the plaintiffs in the cases.

#Trump #immigration #law #BirthrightCitizenship #AbuseOfPower

"The situation would be very odd indeed if the court concluded that the plaintiffs' view of the merits is correct, yet gave only the individual plaintiffs the benefit of that ruling," Trammell said.

The #14thAmendment states that all "persons born or naturalized in the United States, & subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the #UnitedStates & of the state wherein they reside."

#Trump #immigration #law #Constitution #BirthrightCitizenship #AbuseOfPower

The admin contends that the #14thAmendment does not extend to #immigrants who are in the country illegally or even to immigrants whose presence is lawful but temporary, such as #university #students or those on work #visas.

The admin argues automatic #BirthrightCitizenship does not reflect the best reading of the 14th Amendment & it encourages "birth tourism" by expectant mothers traveling the US to give birth & secure #citizenship for their children.

#Trump #immigration #law #Constitution

At #SCOTUS, the admin has targeted only the universal scope of the injunctions, content to leave them in place to protect only the people who sued as well as the residents of the 22 states, assuming SCOTUS finds that these states have the necessary legal standing to bring their cases. That outcome would let #Trump's order go into effect in the 28 states that did not sue, aside from any plaintiffs from those states.

#immigration #law #Constitution #BirthrightCitizenship #AbuseOfPower

The #DOJ said the issuance of broad #judicial injunctions has bedeviled admins of both parties, Republican & Democratic, & must be urgently rectified by #SCOTUS. #Trump himself on March 20 called the situation "toxic" & urged the #SupremeCourt to act.

Since Trump returned to office, many of his numerous #ExecutiveOrders & other initiatives have been impeded by #judges, including through universal injunctions.

#judiciary #immigration #law #Constitution #BirthrightCitizenship #AbuseOfPower

"The need for this court's intervention has become urgent as universal injunctions have reached tsunami levels," the #DOJ said in a written filing.

[it’s the illegal Executive Orders & actions that have reached tsunami levels]

If #SCOTUS agrees to scale back the #judicial blocks, it could lead to a nation geographically fractured between places where babies are born w/automatic #citizenship & places where they are not, the plaintiffs said.

#Trump #immigration #law #BirthrightCitizenship

"An infant would be a #UnitedStates #citizen & full member of society if born in New Jersey, but a deportable noncitizen if born in Tennessee," the plaintiffs in the Maryland case told the justices.

The #DOJ cited #SCOTUS’ action in a case last year to back up its request to narrow the injunctions.

#Trump #immigration #law #Constitution #BirthrightCitizenship #AbuseOfPower

In that case, called Labrador v. Poe, Idaho asked #SCOTUS to let the state enforce a Republican-backed ban on gender-affirming care for #transgender minors after a federal judge blocked it as #unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court, over the dissent of its three liberal members, granted Idaho's request that the statewide injunction be pared back to cover only the transgender plaintiffs who actually sued.

#Trump #immigration #law #Constitution #BirthrightCitizenship #AbuseOfPower

The scope of an injunction is significant, the #DOJ told #SCOTUS, & ensuring that lower courts do not act beyond their limited judicial power "is just as critical as merits review," meaning an assessment of an action's legality.

Some #legal experts said the cases differ for numerous reasons. For instance, they said, the Idaho case involved one state, not a presidential #ExecutiveOrder applying nationally.

#Trump #immigration #law #Constitution #BirthrightCitizenship #AbuseOfPower

Even though the admin has made the dispute primarily about universal injunctions, some court observers have said the justices could decide to rule on the legality of #Trump's order anyway.

It is unusual for #SCOTUS "to be considering an emergency application in this context," University of Chicago #law professor William Baude said.

"Because of that, we won't know what the court is going to focus on until the oral arguments start," Baude added.

#immigration #Constitution #BirthrightCitizenship

Live now #SCOTUS justices will hear #OralArguments this morning in 3 emergency
appeals over orders blocking #Trump's effort to end #BirthrightCitizenship.

To listen → https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/live.aspx

So far still quiet.

#law #immigration #Constitution #Judiciary #AbuseOfPower

#SCOTUS Audio is working now.

Chief Justice #JohnRoberts opened Thursday’s session with a lengthy tribute to former justice #DavidSouter, who died last
week.

Up first is Solicitor General D. John Sauer, representing the #Trump admin.

As expected he’s arguing the power of the #judiciary to issue nationwide injunctions.

#law #immigration #Constitution #AbuseOfPower

Justice Sonia #Sotomayor says Sauer’s logic -- that even #SCOTUS does not have the right to issue a nationwide or universal injunction -- “makes no sense.” There would have to be hundreds of thousands of individual lawsuits to enforce a ruling.

Justice Sotomayor says #Trump’s #BirthrightCitizenship executive order violates four Supreme Court precedents.

#law #NationwideInjunctions #immigration #Constitution #Judiciary #AbuseOfPower

Sauer’s underlying theory, on the merits of the case, is that the #14thAmendment’s provision of #BirthrightCitizenship was meant, at the time of its passage, for freed slaves, not #immigrants to the United States.

#law #SCOTUS #NationwideInjunctions #immigration #Constitution #Judiciary #AbuseOfPower

#Trump & allies have attacked #NationwideInjunctions & the frequent use of them to block #Trump’s [illegal & abusive] agenda. But before he came into office, Trump & allies celebrated similar rulings against the #Biden admin’s deportation policies & social media outreach. Both parties have relied on nationwide injunctions to curb the agenda of those in power.

#hypocrisy #law

Justice Gorsuch presses Sauer on his argument that people can bring #ClassActions instead of seeking #NationwideInjunctions by noting that it takes time to assemble a class & pursue such an approach. Sauer says there can be emergency grants of class status but adds “it is a feature not a bug” that courts only grant relief to the people who are in front of them, not to other people who did not bother to sue.

#law #SCOTUS #BirthrightCitizenship #immigration #Constitution #Judiciary #AbuseOfPower

Justice Kagan asks Sauer to assume that #Trump’s EO on #BirthrightCitizenship is unconstitutional. Since Sauer is questioning whether a #ClassAction lawsuit would be viable in this matter, how long would it take for #SCOTUS to resolve the matter if everyone had to sue individually?

Kagan’s question gets at the practical impact of abolishing #NationwideInjunctions: She is suggesting it would be a chaotic process for many individual plaintiffs across the country fighting for citizenship.

#law

#ClarenceThomas asks Sauer when the first #NationwideInjunctions were issued. Sauer mentions a few early instances going back to the 1940s [if we take his word for it].

Thomas concludes his point by saying, “So we survived perfectly fine without nationwide injunctions until the 1960s.” [he’s giving Sauer a strategy]

Again, we have to take #Trump’s Sol. Gen.’s word on it. Does anyone know?

#law #SCOTUS #BirthrightCitizenship #immigration #Constitution #Judiciary #AbuseOfPower

Ouch. Justice Kagan points out that #Trump / Sauer purposely didn’t bring the case’s merits because they keep losing on individual cases in the lower courts.

Kagan, “I am suggesting in a case where the government is losing constantly... if I were in your shoes, there's no way I'd approach the Supreme Court with this case.”

🔥

#law #SCOTUS #BirthrightCitizenship #NationwideInjunctions #immigration #Constitution #Judiciary #AbuseOfPower

Justice Gorsuch: Justice Kagan articulated my question far better than I could. How do you suggest we reach this case on the merits expeditiously?

Sauer: Percolation through the courts.

Gorsuch: Will you seek cert when you lose in the circuit?

Sauer: yes.

#law #SCOTUS #BirthrightCitizenship #Trump #NationwideInjunctions #immigration #Constitution #Judiciary #AbuseOfPower

Justice Amy Coney Barrett presses Sauer as several justices have on WHY the #Trump admin / #DOJ / Sauer chose NOT to bring the case on its merits.

He again falls back on the percolation argument.

#law #SCOTUS #BirthrightCitizenship #NationwideInjunctions #immigration #Constitution #Judiciary #AbuseOfPower

Justice Kavanaugh questioned how the #Trump admin would actually implement this new #BirthrightCitizenship policy. He questioned whether the 30-day period outlined in the executive order for the federal government to develop guidance on the policy was too short a window given issue’s complexity.

#law #SCOTUS #NationwideInjunctions #immigration #Constitution #Judiciary #AbuseOfPower

Sauer, responding to a question from Justice Kavanaugh, delves again into the history of #NationwideInjunctions. Sauer notes that the during the flurry of legislative changes implemented during the New Deal, one policy prompted lawsuits from >1k individual plaintiffs, suggesting an alternate path to nationwide court orders. Sauer also says that these days are different: He said 40 such orders have been issued in only the past 4 months.

[because of the ridiculous number of illegal EOs by #Trump]

Via Mattathias Schwartz

The assertion by #ClarenceThomas that “we survived until the 1960’s without universal injunctions” has been challenged by legal scholars who found examples of the tool's use going back as far as 1913, when #SCOTUS itself temporarily blocked the enforcement of a federal #law not only against the plaintiffs in a case but others as well. In other cases from the 1930’s, lower courts issued statewide injunctions blocking the enforcement of state laws.

#NationwideInjunctions

Under questioning by Justice Amy Coney Barrett about whether the #Trump admin will follow court orders, Sauer says the admin would follow a #SCOTUS ruling on the constitutionality of #BirthrightCitizenship. But he wouldn’t commit to it following federal appeals court rulings within their geographic jurisdiction, saying the government “generally” would do so.

#law #NationwideInjunctions #immigration #Constitution #Judiciary #AbuseOfPower

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson makes a recommendation to the court, that they do decide the case on its #merits, decide whether #Trump’s #ExecutiveOrder on #BirthrightCitizenship is legal.

#law #SCOTUS #NationwideInjunctions #immigration #Constitution #Judiciary #AbuseOfPower

Jeremy M. Feigenbaum, New Jersey’s solicitor general, has now begun arguing on behalf of blue states challenging #Trump’s #ExecutiveOrder. He has 15 minutes, followed by a round of one-by-one questions.

#law #SCOTUS #BirthrightCitizenship #NationwideInjunctions #immigration #Constitution #Judiciary #AbuseOfPower

Sidebar: Personally it seems to me there were frequent outbursts of laughter during Sauer’s oral arguments where people including the Justices were laughing AT Sauer. Now when there has been laughter during Feigenbaum’s arguments, they are laughing WITH him.

#law #SCOTUS #BirthrightCitizenship #NationwideInjunctions #immigration #Constitution #Judiciary #AbuseOfPower

Nicely done by Justice Sonia #Sotomayor she refutes #ClarenceThomas’ assertion that #NationwideInjunctions, citing cases, have been around since the founding.

#law #SCOTUS #BirthrightCitizenship #immigration #Constitution #Judiciary #AbuseOfPower

Feigenbaum, on the practical impact of having some states allowing #BirthrightCitizenship while others deny it, points out that not since the Civil War has a child’s #citizenship status “turned on” (or off) when they crossed state lines. That would be the practical consequence of forcing judges to issue rulings that affect only the plaintiffs in a suit -- in this case, a series of Democratic-led states that sued.

#law #SCOTUS #NationwideInjunctions #immigration #Constitution #Judiciary

Feigenbaum points to the harm incurred by the states who allow #BirthrightCitizenship would have to institute SSNs for children coming from a state that doesn’t allow it. #SocialSecurity is a federal program & is national.

He also points to the chaos #immigration enforcement would face. e.g. Do removal proceeding started in one state stop if the person crosses into a state where they have citizenship?

#law #SCOTUS #NationwideInjunctions #Constitution #Judiciary

Kelsi Corkran, representing an individual challenger, is the third and last lawyer. She has 15 minutes, followed by a round of one-by-one questions. Then Sauer, the #Trump admin’s lawyer, will get a brief rebuttal.

#law #SCOTUS #BirthrightCitizenship #NationwideInjunctions #immigration #Constitution #Judiciary #AbuseOfPower

Corkran suggests a middle ground: allow #NationwideInjunctions only when a plaintiff is challenging a government action as violating fundamental constitutional rights, since that is a situation where there are concerns that other people harmed by the same action will experience irreparable harm.

#law #SCOTUS #BirthrightCitizenship #immigration #Constitution #Judiciary #AbuseOfPower

Corkran under questioning by
Kavanaugh is able to refute Sauer’s assertion that the #judiciary is overreaching pointing to the number of injunctions issued.

Corkran notes the admin is double counting by counting both TROs & PIs in the same case.

Corkran also notes that this admin has issued more #ExecutiveOrders & #PresidentialActions in its first 4 months than any other & has already exceeded total EOs & PAs issued over 4 years by other admins.

#law #SCOTUS #NationwideInjunctions

Sauer is up again for rebuttal. He again asserts that #BirthrightCitizenship was intended for former slaves not people who immigrated from other countries.

Weird for him to make this argument in his closing, since they aren’t bring the case on the merits. Nobody seems bothered though. After his statement they accept the case & adjourn.

#law #SCOTUS #NationwideInjunctions #immigration #Constitution #Judiciary #AbuseOfPower

Even though Sol. Gen. Sauer was grilled, it’s hard to be certain of a fifth vote denying the govt’s application.

Possibly Kavanaugh could be. But there wasn’t any real pushback from CJ #JohnRoberts or Kavanaugh, & we know Thomas, Alito, & Gorsuch will let #Trump do it.

#law #SCOTUS #BirthrightCitizenship #NationwideInjunctions #immigration #Constitution #Judiciary #AbuseOfPower

Here is TPM’s @kateriga’s analysis of today’s #SCOTUS proceedings:

#BirthrightCitizenship Is Safe For Now. #NationwideInjunctions Are Not.

#law #Trump #immigration #Constitution #Judiciary #AbuseOfPower
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/birthright-citizenship-is-safe-for-now-nationwide-injunctions-are-not