Big news on the national injunction front: the US Supreme Court, by a vote of 7-2, has just issued a stay of the district court’s national injunction in Barr v. East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, a case about the administration’s new asylum policy. To be clear, given the posture of the case, the Court is not deciding whether lower courts can issue national injunctions. But this action is a signal of the Court’s concern about the practice.
The Supreme Court’s action comes after a flurry of decisions in this case, even in the last few days. The district court issued a national injunction against enforcement of the administration policy. Then a Ninth Circuit motions panel (by a 2-1) vote issued a partial stay, limiting the injunction to the territory of the Ninth Circuit, and remanding to the district court. Then two days ago the district judge decided again to issue a national injunction. Then yesterday a panel of the Ninth Circuit (I presume a merits panel) issued a partial stay again limiting the injunction to the territory of the Ninth Circuit, a kind of “Yes, we really meant it.” Then today the Supreme Court acted.
A few links:
Coverage by Amy Howe is here.
The SCOTUSBlog page for the case is here.
The order of the Court, with Judge Sotomayor’s dissent, is available here.
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