US Supreme Court curbs lower courts’ power to block executive orders

The Supreme Court on Friday handed a significant victory to Donald Trump – and future American presidents – when curbing lower courts’ power to block executive orders.

President Trump was beaming as he addressed reporters at the White House briefing room podium, calling it a “big, amazing decision” which the administration is “very happy about”.

He said it was a “monumental victory for the constitution, the separation of powers and the rule of law”.

The court’s decision not only impacts Trump’s birthright citizenship order, but also emboldens him to enact many of his other policy actions that have been temporarily thwarted by similar injunctions.

The Supreme Court has opened the door for the Trump administration to no longer grant automatic citizenship to everyone born on American soil – at least for the moment. Now the White House will have to implement its plan, which will be no easy task.

On Friday, the nation’s highest court allowed Donald Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship to go into effect in a month’s time, while leaving room for lower courts to curb the impact on those who have standing to sue.

States traditionally handle processing birth certificates, and many do not record the citizenship of the parents. Democratic-run state governments will be in no rush to do so, no matter what the Trump administration may desire.

And Justice Amy Coney Barrett, writing for the majority, left the door open for states to make the case that a broader block on Trump’s birthright citizenship action is necessary.

That sets up big legal battles to come.

“As the States see it, their harms – financial injuries and the administrative burdens flowing from citizen-dependent benefits programmes – cannot be remedied without a blanket ban on the enforcement of the Executive Order,” Barrett wrote.

“The lower courts should determine whether a narrower injunction is appropriate, so we leave it to them to consider these and any related arguments.”

President Trump described the court’s decision on Friday as a “giant win”.

He added that the “birthright citizenship hoax” has been “indirectly, hit hard” and that the decision would prevent “scamming of our immigration process”.

Trump’s Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Friday that the Supreme Court will decide whether the US will end birthright citizenship in October during its next session.

The court’s decision to limit the power of lower court federal judges to issue nationwide injunctions will have immediate, wide-ranging consequences.

Both Democratic and Republican presidents have often criticised what they say are ideological jurists in federal district courts who have been able to singlehandedly block executive actions and even legislation passed by Congress. (BBC)

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