Thank you Justice Gorsuch. This rebuke is long past due.
Neil Gorsuch Issues Scathing Rebuke to Activist Judges and Nationwide Injunctions pjmedia.com/trending/neil-… #NewsandPolitics via @pjmedia_com
Neil Gorsuch Issues Scathing Rebuke to Activist Judges and Nationwide Injunctions pjmedia.com/trending/neil-… #NewsandPolitics via @pjmedia_com
On Monday, SCOTUS allowed the Trump admin’s public charge rule to go into effect, striking down a nationwide injunction from a NY judge. The rule allows the government to deny green cards to immigrants who receive public assistance and are therefore considered a "public charge."
In addition to the 5-4 decision allowing the rule to go into effect, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch issued a concurring opinion rebuking activist judges and their rush to apply "nationwide injunctions" against Trump administration policies.
"Today the Court (rightly) grants a stay, allowing the government to pursue (for now) its policy everywhere save Illinois. But, in light of all that’s come before, it would be delusional to think that one stay today suffices to remedy the problem.”
“The real problem here is the increasingly common practice of trial courts ordering relief that transcends the cases before them.”
“Whether framed as injunctions of 'nationwide,' 'universal,' or 'cosmic' scope, these orders share the same basic flaw—they direct how the defendant must act toward persons who are not parties to the case," Gorsuch wrote.
"Equitable remedies, like remedies in general, are meant to redress the injuries sustained by a particular plaintiff in a particular lawsuit...”
“But when a court goes further than that, ordering the government to take (or not take) some action with respect to those who are strangers to the suit, it is hard to see how the court could still be acting in the judicial role of resolving cases and controversies.”
“Injunctions like these thus raise serious questions about the scope of courts’ equitable powers under Article III," he explained.
