In the 2024 Trump cases involving presidential immunity and the insurrection language in the Fourteenth Amendment, the Supreme Court basically ignored the relevant text and legislative history and crafted a pro-Trump decision based on policy and administrative convenience. In today’s nationwide injunction case, on the other hand, the Court’s decision was based purely on its understanding of history; policy, we are told bluntly, has nothing to do with it, and if injustice to millions of people is the result, that is not the Court’s problem.
It was clear that the Court needed to craft some new prudential rules governing nationwide injunctions; that was not a partisan issue. But to ditch nationwide relief altogether is a horrible mistake. It will encourage Trump and other future presidents to engage in constitutional overreaching and result in administrative chaos.
I did not expect the Court to go this far. Frankly, I’m shocked and horrified.