Supreme Court limits nationwide injunctions in birthright citizenship order

The Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision along ideological lines on Friday sided with the Trump administration’s request to limit universal injunctions issued by federal courts. The opinion in the birthright citizenship case was highly anticipated.

“Universal injunctions likely exceed the equitable authority that Congress has given to federal courts,” the conservative majority said. “The Court grants the Government’s applications for a partial stay of the injunctions entered below, but only to the extent that the injunctions are broader than necessary to provide complete relief to each plaintiff with standing to sue.”

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At issue was how the lower courts should handle President Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship. On his first day in office this year, Trump issued an executive order declaring that the children of parents who enter the U.S. illegally or on a temporary visa are not entitled to automatic citizenship.

Immigrant rights groups and 22 states sued, and three different federal district court judges invalidated Trump’s order, issuing what are called universal injunctions barring the administration from enforcing the Trump policy anywhere in the country.

When the courts of appeal refused to intervene while the litigation proceeded, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to block universal injunctions altogether.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.