Republicans acknowledge their party uses nationwide injunctions to block orders under Democratic presidents. They’re fine with that power going away.
The Supreme Court’s opinion limiting the ability of federal courts to issue nationwide injunctions is good for the health of the courts, several Republican senators told NOTUS Friday, no matter the party in the White House. Sen. James Lankford called the decision “long overdue.”
“It’s been a complaint from Republican and Democrat presidents for decades now to say one local district court can’t make a decision for the whole country,” Lankford said. “The Supreme Court makes a decision for the country. Circuit Courts make decisions for the circuits. So this is literally resetting us back to how we functioned for 200 years.”
“The last 50 years have been the anomaly in the judicial world,” he added. “This gets us back to where we have been and should be.”
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The court issued the opinion Friday morning on a case regarding President Donald Trump’s order to end birthright citizenship, which a federal judge in Maryland issued a preliminary injunction on in February. Courts have issued dozens of injunctions over the Trump administration’s orders, on everything from immigration to federal funding.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he’s been advocating for a limit on nationwide injunctions for a long time.
“So many times, Biden got hit with the same thing, and the same principle has to apply, whether it’s a Democratic president or a Republican president,” Grassley told NOTUS. “You can’t have one judge out of 700 making a decision and overruling the president of the United States, as long as the president of the United States is acting within his constitutional authority.”
Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee this week issued a statement criticizing Democrats for a “flip-flop” on national injunctions, depending on who is in power. Republicans used nationwide injunctions to block former President Joe Biden’s orders as well — successfully blocking orders on COVID-19 vaccine mandates, for example.
“It reinforces, to many, the idea that judiciary is shirts and skins,” Sen. Lindsey Graham said of universal injunctions.
Some Republicans also acknowledged the inverse of such a decision: it gives the president more power.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville said the decision will stop the judicial system from slowing the executive branch’s powers.
“Both sides have been guilty of it,” Tuberville told NOTUS. “They need to be reined in. We don’t need to stop the country because one federal judge doesn’t like when something is going on and makes it political.”
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Em Luetkemeyer is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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