Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey issued a response Friday to the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in the case concerning President Donald Trump’s (R) executive order on birthright citizenship.
Although the Justices did not directly weigh in on the issue of birthright citizenship in their ruling, they did find that federal judges do not have the authority to issue nationwide injunctions.
This ruling marked a victory for the Trump Administration, which has frequently raised concerns about individual judges making decisions that impact the entire country through nationwide, or universal, injunctions.
While the broad injunction requests were initially granted by lower court judges based on the merits of the respective cases, the Trump Administration’s appeals focused on the scope of these actions, arguing that the judges had exceeded their authority in issuing such broad blocks on the enforcement of the President’s executive order.
For this reason, the Supreme Court was tasked with providing guidance on the permissibility of universal injunctions, not the constitutionality of the President’s executive order itself.
“When a court concludes that the Executive Branch has acted unlawfully, the answer is not for the court to exceed its power, too,” the Justices argued in their majority opinion, explaining that nationwide injunctions are not a legitimate means by which to reign in the federal government.
“Why bother with a [class action lawsuit] when the quick fix of a universal injunction is on the table?” the Justices posited.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissenting opinion argued that “no right is safe in the new legal regime the Court creates,” as judges no longer have the authority to issue broad injunctions against “plainly unlawful policies.”
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson expressed full agreement with Sotomayor but added that it is an “existential threat to the rule of law” to allow the Executive “to violate the Constitution with respect to anyone who has not yet sued.”
[RELATED: SCOTUS Reins In Federal Judges on Nationwide Injunctions, Yet to Rule on Birthright Citizenship]
Although Attorney General Frey’s response focused more directly on the issue of birthright citizenship than did the Supreme Court’s rulings, he did also touch on their findings regarding the authority of federal judges.
“Children born in Maine to immigrant parents are citizens,” he said. “Nothing in today’s ruling changes that fact now or in the future.”
“My colleagues and I remain committed to fighting for fidelity to the Constitution and its promise of birthright citizenship,” continued Frey.
“While this case is not yet over,” he said, “I am disappointed that the Supreme Court ducked the opportunity to reaffirm a clear, 127-year-old legal precedent that the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution protects birthright citizenship and chose to limit the use of nationwide injunctions.”
“At the same time, this order reminds us that relief from federal overreach may only be available to states, like Maine, when they bring a lawsuit to hold this presidential administration accountable,” said Frey.
Click Here to Read Attorney General Frey’s Full Statement
As a result of the Supreme Court’s ruling in this case, the government’s request to partially stay the preliminary injunctions issued by the lower courts against the President’s executive order has been granted, but only to the extent that they are “broader than necessary.”
Executive agencies will now be permitted to develop and issue public guidance regarding the branch’s plans to implement President Trump’s executive order as the merits of these cases are considered by the lower courts.
New, more targeted injunctions may soon be issued by the lower courts blocking enforcement of the executive order as it relates to the plaintiffs in those cases specifically.
