President Donald Trump celebrated a Supreme Court victory where justices voted 6-3 to limit federal judges’ ability to block nationwide enforcement of executive orders, specifically addressing the partial elimination of birthright citizenship.
While Trump praised the decision as a significant win, the justices did not make a final determination on the constitutionality of the president’s executive order.
The big picture: Following the SCOTUS ruling, Trump expressed his intention to proceed with numerous policies that had been halted by nationwide injunctions due to the appeal of an “emergency basis” to the Supreme Court.
- The Supreme Court’s decision to partially stay the injunctions was seen as a significant move in limiting the broad reach of universal injunctions, which were viewed as exceeding the equitable authority granted to federal courts by Congress.
- Justice Sonia Sotomayor criticized the executive order as “patently unconstitutional” and accused the Trump administration of “gamesmanship,” expressing dissent along with Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
What they’re saying: Trump responded to the ruling by calling it a “GIANT WIN” and emphasized the impact on the Birthright Citizenship order indirectly, attributing it to the historical context of the term.
- Attorney General Pam Bondi commended the win as an instruction to district courts to cease issuing continuous nationwide injunctions against President Trump’s policies, expressing confidence in the Supreme Court’s eventual ruling in favor of the executive order.
- Vice President JD Vance supported the ruling for challenging the practice of nationwide injunctions, highlighting concerns raised during court arguments about the implications of denying citizenship to children born to parents in the country illegally.
Zoom in: Conservative justices like Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh appeared to lean towards the notion that lower courts had overstepped their authority in blocking Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship.
- The core contention with the executive order lies in its conflict with the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which guarantees citizenship to individuals born or naturalized in the U.S. subject to its jurisdiction.
