Number of injunctions halting Trump policies trounces predecessors by double
Nationwide injunctions ordered against the first Trump administration account for more than half of the total injunctions ordered against the federal government since 1963, data show.
Nationwide injunctions are court orders that prevent the federal government from implementing a policy or law that has a cascading effect impacting the entire country, not just the parties involved in the court case.
Trump’s first administration faced 64 injunctions out of the total 127 nationwide injunctions issued since 1963. There were 32 injunctions issued against the Bush, Obama and Biden administrations collectively since 2001, meaning the first Trump administration was on the receiving end of double the amount of nationwide injunctions than his two predecessors and successor combined, according to the April 2024 edition of the Harvard Law Review.
The Harvard Law Review found there were six injunctions issued against the Bush administration, 12 against the Obama administration and 14 against the Biden administration.
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Trump’s return to the Oval Office in January has brought with it more than 120 lawsuits from activists, government employees and others targeting his executive orders and actions. The lawsuits have resulted in nationwide injunctions in some cases, including 15 in February alone, according to Trump’s acting solicitor general, Sarah Harris.
Trump filed an emergency appeal Thursday asking the Supreme Court to narrow three injunctions that were issued to halt Trump’s nullification of birthright citizenship. The emergency appeal requests the injunction only cover individuals directly impacted by the relevant courts.
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Harris argued in the emergency appeal that nationwide injunctions have hit "epidemic proportions" under the second Trump administration, noting that the federal government faced 14 universal injunctions in the first three years of the Biden administration compared to 15 leveled against the Trump admin in one month alone.
"Years of experience have shown that the Executive Branch cannot properly perform its functions if any judge anywhere can enjoin every presidential action everywhere," Harris wrote.
Officials in the first Trump administration also railed against the flow of injunctions ordered against the 45th president’s policies and laws, including the former chiefs of the Department of Justice.
"Courts issued an average of only 1.5 nationwide injunctions per year against the Reagan, Clinton, and George W. Bush administrations, and 2.5 per year against the Obama administration," former Assistant Attorney General Beth Williams said in February 2019.
"In President Trump’s first year in office, however, judges issued a whopping 20 nationwide injunctions – an eightfold increase. This matches the entire eight-year total of such injunctions issued against President Obama during his two terms. We are now at 30, matching the total number of injunctions issued against the first 42 presidents combined."
Former Trump administration Attorney General Bill Barr added in remarks later in 2019 that there were "only 27 nationwide injunctions in all of the 20th century" compared to 37, at the time, against the first Trump administration.
"Since President Trump took office, federal district courts have issued 37 nationwide injunctions against the Executive Branch. That’s more than one a month. By comparison, during President Obama’s first two years, district courts issued two nationwide injunctions against the Executive Branch, both of which were vacated by the Ninth Circuit. And according to the Department’s best estimates, courts issued only 27 nationwide injunctions in all of the 20th century," the former AG said in May 2019.
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Harvard Law Review found that the judges who issued the injunctions against the first Trump administration were overwhelmingly ordered by judges who were appointed by a Democrat.
Democratic-appointed judges ordered 92.2% of the injunctions against the Trump administration, meaning just five of the 64 injunctions were ordered by Republican-appointed judges.
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Republican-appointed judges ordered all 14 of the nationwide injunctions against the federal government under the Biden administration.
Injunctions under the Bush and Obama eras were much more bipartisan, with 50% of the injunctions in the Bush era issued by Democratic-appointed judges, and Republican-appointed judges ordering 58.3% of the 12 injunctions in the Obama era.
Fox News Digital's Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report.