Universal injunction victory overshadowed by class action lawsuit

The Trump administration won a significant victory at the Supreme Court last month with the justices’ 6-3 decision in Trump v. CASA. The decision effectively struck down district courts’ ability to issue universal injunctions, which block laws or policies from being enforced against anyone. The Supreme Court instead limited lower court injunctions to the parties before the court.

The decision was a key victory for the Trump administration in reducing the sweeping injunctions placed against policies as they are litigated in court. Nevertheless, opponents were able to get a similarly wide injunction for the president’s birthright citizenship order despite the Supreme Court ruling.

In the aftermath of Trump v. CASA, legal scholars and experts, along with some of the justices in the decision itself, pointed out that a nationwide class action certification could achieve similar sweeping halts on certain types of government actions.

Shortly after the June 27 decision, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against Trump’s birthright citizenship order in the New Hampshire federal district court and requested a nationwide class certification for those who could be affected by the order. United States District Judge Joseph Laplante granted the order for a preliminary injunction and the provisional class certification, effectively blocking the executive order nationwide from being enforced against those who would be affected by it.

The sweeping preliminary injunction essentially replicates the effect of a universal injunction.

Supreme Court emergency docket wins and injunctions pile up for Trump

The Trump administration has filled the Supreme Court’s emergency docket with requests to stay lower court orders, and the administration has largely been successful in its pleas. Despite the success in staying lower court orders, additional lower court orders blocking aspects of the president’s agenda continue to be handed down.

In recent weeks, the Supreme Court handed Trump wins in allowing his administration to deport illegal immigrants to countries other than their country of origin and to proceed with sweeping federal workforce cuts.

Still, opponents of the president have been able to have judges place new pauses on different Trump policies.

The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California issued restrictions on the conduct of immigration raids by federal authorities in the judicial district, which includes Los Angeles. Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong ordered that federal immigration officers may not rely on apparent race, language spoken, location, or job as sole reasons to inquire about a person’s immigration status.

The Justice Department has appealed the ruling, but if the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit does not grant a stay of the order, which the administration has requested, it could end up before the Supreme Court in the emergency docket.

Another recent loss for the Trump administration came with a provision of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was passed by Congress and signed into law by the president earlier this month. Judge Indira Talwani of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts blocked a provision of the law that cut Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood clinics.

Continued legal headaches for Trump administration in district courts

The Trump administration also faces lawsuits that are causing it continued headaches.

The Department of Justice’s legal saga over the deportation of Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland has been ongoing, with Judge Paula Xinis considering blocking the Trump administration from quickly deporting Abrego Garcia.

The legal battle over Abrego Garcia began in March, when he was deported to El Salvador. Despite an order preventing him from being deported there, it allowed him to be deported to any other country. The illegal immigrant was brought back to the U.S. in June to be arraigned on criminal human smuggling charges, but a judge ruled he could be released from prison pending a trial on those charges. The Trump administration has previously said it intends to deport Abrego Garcia if he is released from prison.

JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP ORDER IN NATIONWIDE CLASS ACTION CASE

Another case, which has continued at the district court level, pertains to the president’s deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles to protect federal property and agents amid unrest over immigration enforcement operations. While most of the lawsuits filed against the Trump administration by California officials have been moved up to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, District Judge Charles Breyer said he will continue to evaluate if the order violated a federal law preventing troops from being used for regular law enforcement activities.

With Breyer continuing to consider a new pause on the deployment of the troops to Los Angeles and the federal appeals court taking up the rest of the state’s arguments, the Trump administration has two levels of courts where it is fighting different aspects of the same lawsuit.

While the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down universal injunctions is expected to offer a reprieve from forum shopping, it does not appear to reduce the number of legal battles the Trump administration will face.