Supreme Court Slaps Down Activist Judges, Curbs Injunctions Against Trump Birthright Citizenship EO

The Supreme Court on Friday allowed President Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship to go into effect in some areas of the country – blocking judges’ ability to halt the president’s policies nationwide.

The order, signed Trump’s first day in office, curbs birthright citizenship for children born on US soil if they don’t have at least one parent with permanent legal status – which quickly became a legal question surrounding the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause.

Supreme Court, by a 6-3 vote, rules nationwide injunctions exceed the power of individual federal court judges (the case is about birthright citizenship but the Court didn’t decide the merits of that).

Barrett wrote the majority opinion. Sotomayor, Kagan and KBJ dissent. https://t.co/Wtbzz4X1Ao

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 27, 2025

The 6-3 ruling along ideological lines found that three federal district judges went too far in issuing nationwide injunctions against Trump’s order. The decision hobbles a key tool used by venue-shopping Democrats and the activist judges that have been blocking Trump’s path since January – with every court having found the legality of Trump’s EO ‘likely’ unconstitutional.

That said, it doesn’t definitively resolve whether Trump’s restrictions on birthright citizenship are constitutional – a question which could end up in front of the Supremes down the road. It does, howeever, narrow the lower court rulings to only block Trump’s order as applied to the 22 Democratic-led states, expectant mothers and immigration organizations that are suing.

In her majority opinion for the Supreme Court nuking universal injunctions, Amy Coney Barrett also juked Kentanji Brown Jackson from orbit.

“We will not dwell on Justice Jackson’s argument, which is at odds with more than two centuries worth of precedent, not to mention the… pic.twitter.com/je6FsoXxCi

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) June 27, 2025

Furthermore, Justices Alito and Thomas note that the Supreme Court ‘completely punted on the issue of third-party class certifications, which will be the gimmick now used to get around the universal injunction ban,” according to The Federalist‘s Sean Davis.

In a concurring opinion, Alito and Thomas note that the Supreme Court completely punted on the issue of third-party class certifications, which will be the gimmick now used to get around the universal injunction ban. pic.twitter.com/6zX6EV4Zbf

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) June 27, 2025

The cases will now return to lower courts where they will play out as Trump’s order partially goes into effect. Once the appeals courts issue their final rulings, the parties could bring the case back to the SCOTUS.