WASHINGTON – In a seismic 6-3 ruling that has Democrats reeling, the Supreme Court on Friday handed President Donald Trump a resounding victory, sharply limiting federal judges’ power to issue nationwide injunctions against executive actions—a move that clears the path for his controversial executive order curtailing birthright citizenship. The decision in Trump v. CASA, Inc., penned by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, declares that lower courts can only block policies for the specific plaintiffs in a case, not the entire nation, effectively dismantling a tool Democrats wielded relentlessly during Trump’s first term to stall his agenda.
The blockbuster came on the court’s emergency docket, bypassing full briefing and oral arguments. Barrett’s opinion, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh, lambasted “universal injunctions” as an “unprecedented judicial power grab” that “usurps the Executive’s constitutional role.” The case stemmed from Trump’s January 2025 order, which ended automatic citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants under the 14th Amendment’s “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” clause—a policy blocked nationwide by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco. The high court stayed Chen’s ruling, allowing the order to proceed in 48 states while litigation continues.
Trump, elated at a White House briefing, crowed: “Big win! No more activist judges tying my hands—the wall’s up, borders secure, America first.” Attorney General Pam Bondi hailed it as “a reset for executive power,” predicting swift deportations of 300,000 affected Venezuelans under revoked TPS. The ruling doesn’t resolve birthright citizenship’s merits—slated for October arguments—but neuters Democrats’ strategy of forum-shopping for sympathetic judges.
Liberals erupted. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, dissenting with Justices Kagan and Jackson, warned it “emboldens unchecked executive overreach, endangering constitutional rights nationwide.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer branded it “a partisan gift to Trump’s authoritarian playbook,” tying it to recent court wins on tariffs and agency firings. Legal scholars like Georgetown’s Stephen Vladeck called it “a valuable reset” for Trump’s initiatives but a “nightmare for civil rights.”
This stunner, the administration’s 21st emergency docket triumph, underscores a conservative supermajority flexing muscle. As midterms loom and injunctions crumble, Trump’s foes never saw it coming: A court not just tilting right, but turbocharging his mandate.
