Nationwide injunctions: initial reaction to the messy, nonsensical Supreme Court ruling

What does it actually mean, going forward?

The Supreme Court ruled, kind of, in favor of the Trump Administration this morning by kind of, sort of limiting nationwide injunctions at the circuit court level, which could potentially allow some or all of his unconstitutional executive orders to go into effect, assuming no courts take additional measures to stop them.

I use tepid, uncertain, and unclear language here, because I’m choosing to reflect the precise wording of the Supreme Court’s majority opinion, which was very oddly read by the junior-most member of the majority, Amy Coney Barrett.

Because I read virtually the entire Supreme Court opinion, all 100+ ungodly pages of it, and very weirdly, it is extremely difficult to determine exactly what the ruling actually changes.

They leave the door open to universal injunctions at the discretion of lower district courts, when they’re required for “complete relief” for the plaintiffs, which may or may not include third parties (people not listed as a plaintiff), when it’s a state filing the claim vs. a person.

They maintain the power of universal injunctions at the appeals court and Supreme Court levels (specifically called out in Kavanaugh’s concurring opinion, which framed this decision as a narrow, technical, procedural decision, and not a sweeping philosophical statement on the role of the judiciary).

And they maintain the power to obtain preliminary nationwide relief through a class-action suit; Alito specifically whined that this ruling might cause a flood of these suits in his concurring opinion.

So what did they actually decide?

The very literal step they took was this: send the three district court cases back to the district courts to determine if, with their additional guidance, the injunctions are still warranted.

As the courts do this, those suing the government are converting the suit to a class action suit.

What I’m reading is a highly technical, profoundly spineless decision that will make enforcing the rule of law slower, messier, and more dependent on the Supreme Court than ever. All because the Court didn’t want to defend the judgment of federal judges presiding over lower circuit courts, because those lower courts are sometimes used by partisan presidents with ill intent to ideally deliver rulings in their favor.

A decision that may, in fact, not result in any practical changes at all (confirmed in more whining from Alito, as he fears preliminary orders resulting from class action lawsuits will be “universal injunctions returning from the grave”).

My take?

It’s not a straight up doomsday decision on its own, but it certainly creates a more favorable environment for doomsday shit to happen.

Ultimately there are three things I need to know:

First, how will the courts handle the next 30 days, specifically regarding birthright citizenship? If the Court rapidly affirms the 14th Amendment, it could confirm this as a process decision over a philosophical one, and discourage Trump from attempting additional absurd abuses in the future.

Second, how will lower courts incorporate this guidance into their rulings regarding the many other critical injunctions still in effect? Because no current injunctions are actually lifted; and this decision only sent back the three circuit court rulings that resulted in the injunctions on behalf of pregnant immigrants. Other injunctions will be revisited by lower courts, and since those lower courts are the ones that delivered the warranted injunctions in the first place, I think it’s likely they find a way through this new process to deliver the same outcome protecting our rights.

Third, what new executive orders will Trump write in the aftermath, to take advantage of the new leeway he may have? This is the biggest, and I think by far the scariest challenge before us, as we know Trump will use this new inch of power to try and take a mile, or more. However, this does depend on the outcome of my first question regarding what happens in the next 30 days.

The shred of solace I hold, and the solace I’ll ask you to hold with me, is that our blue states, blue governors, blue attorneys general, and the impending 2026 midterm election are still in our hands, and from this era of constant trauma, fear, and anxiety, I am more determined than ever to be part of the rebirth of the United States we know and love: a country ready to move on from hate, fear, and isolation, toward peace, diversity, strength, and growth.

Because this is all we have, it’s all we’ve ever had, and yesterday, today, and tomorrow, protecting what we have has never been a matter of laws and values protecting themselves. It takes people to choose to do what’s right, and I refuse to believe the people of the United States truly support what this president is doing. MAGA is not America. No matter what he posts on Truth Social.

We are better than this, and we are better than him. And one way or another, we must outlast him.