Supreme Court to hear arguments over injunctions on Trump bid to end birthright citizenship
The Supreme Court on Thursday said it would hear expedited oral arguments next month over President Donald Trump's emergency request to rollback nationwide injunctions against his executive order to end birthright citizenship.
The nation's highest court set arguments for May 15 at 10 a.m.
The move by the justices sets the stage for a decision by this summer on three separate district court injunctions that had blocked the administration from moving forward with its plan to create a new standard for establishing citizenship to children born on U.S. soil to parents who do not have permanent legal status.
Trump had asked the Supreme Court to allow the administration to, at the very least, begin planning for the change. He also took aim at the universal lower court mandates that he argued exceeded their authority.
"This Court should declare that enough is enough before district courts’ burgeoning reliance on universal injunctions becomes further entrenched," Trump's acting solicitor general wrote in the application. "The Court should stay the district courts’ preliminary injunctions except as to the individual plaintiffs and the identified members of the organizational plaintiffs (and, if the Court concludes that States are proper litigants, as to individuals who are born or reside in those States)."
"At a minimum, the Court should stay the injunctions to the extent they prohibit agencies from developing and issuing public guidance regarding the implementation of the Order. Only this Court’s intervention can prevent universal injunctions from becoming universally acceptable," she added.
While the immediate issue is the scope of the injunctions, it's also possible the justices wade into the substance of Trump's executive order itself and the constitutionality of birthright citizenship, which was enshrined in the 14th Amendment and been repeatedly upheld by high court precedent.
Four separate district courts and three federal appeals courts have kept the Trump policy on hold during litigation, finding it very likely unconstitutional.
Earlier this month, a coalition of states and immigrant advocates had asked the Supreme Court to reject Trump's emergency request to rollback a nationwide injunction against his executive order ending birthright citizenship.
"Being directed to follow the law as it has been universally understood for over 125 years is not an emergency warranting the extraordinary remedy of a stay," they wrote. "This Court should deny the federal government’s request. Many aspects of constitutional interpretation are hotly debated, but not the merits question in this case. For over a century, it has been the settled view of this Court, Congress, the Executive Branch, and legal scholars that the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause guarantees citizenship to babies born in the United States regardless of their parents’ citizenship, “allegiance,” “domicile,” immigration status, or nationality."
