Power Grab/Fire anyone who can stop him
The Supreme Court rules 6-3 that federal courts cannot issue nationwide injunctions, in a case over Trump’s birthright-citizenship order
Trump v. CASA, decided June 27, 2025, limits relief to the plaintiffs and does not decide whether the order is constitutional.
What happened
On June 27, 2025, in Trump v. CASA, the Supreme Court held 6-3 that federal courts cannot issue universal injunctions, orders that bar the government from enforcing a policy against anyone rather than only the plaintiffs. Justice Barrett wrote the opinion for the six conservative justices.
The case came from three nationwide injunctions against Executive Order 14160, which Trump signed on his first day to deny citizenship to certain children born in the United States. Every district court to consider it found it likely unconstitutional. The government asked the Supreme Court not to uphold the order but to limit the injunctions.
The Court said universal injunctions lack a historical pedigree in equity and fall outside the authority Congress gave federal courts in 1789. It did not decide whether the order violates the Fourteenth Amendment, and it sent the states’ claims back to lower courts. Within hours plaintiffs refiled as class actions.
Who benefited
The president can now put a policy into effect everywhere except where a specific plaintiff has won. Challengers must sue district by district or clear the higher bar for class certification. This administration was the party that sought the result.
Who wanted something
The Solicitor General’s office framed its emergency applications around judicial power rather than citizenship. Administration lawyers had lost repeatedly in district courts, where every judge to consider the order found it likely unconstitutional, and wanted to stop single judges from halting policies nationwide.
Who lost out
People affected by unlawful executive action who are not plaintiffs lose most, and Justice Jackson’s dissent said they would disproportionately be the poor, the uneducated and the unpopular. Lower courts lost their most direct tool for stopping an illegal policy while litigation proceeds.
Why it matters
For most of 2025 the most effective brake on executive orders was a district judge’s nationwide injunction, and the Court removed it. A policy no longer has to be legal to operate against most people for the months or years a case takes.
Sources Supreme Court of the United States (primary)American Immigration Council