WASHINGTON, D.C., June 27, 2025 – Today the Supreme Court issued its decision in Trump v. CASA, ruling 6-3 not on the question of birthright citizenship but to gut lower courts’ ability to place a check on the unlawful behavior of the executive. In short, the Court’s conservative majority has issued Trump a license to get away with unconstitutional actions unless every single individual impacted by those actions files their own individual suit. Without universal injunctions, the lower courts have no mechanism to stop such activity. Not only would the harm continue, but the Supreme Court would likely never even hear such a case, because why would the government appeal a loss when it can keep engaging in bad behavior against those who haven’t sued?
As Justices Sotomayor and Jackson write in their dissents, this is a complete abdication of the judiciary’s responsibility to protect the rule of law. “Allowing the Executive to violate the law at its prerogative with respect to anyone who has not yet sued carves out a huge exception—a gash in the basic tenets of our founding charter that could turn out to be a mortal wound,” writes Justice Jackson. “What is more, to me, requiring courts themselves to provide the dagger (by giving their imprimatur to the Executive Branch’s intermittent lawlessness) makes a mockery of the Judiciary’s solemn duty to safeguard the rule of law.”
Alliance for Justice President Rachel Rossi issued the following statement:
“Today’s decision gutting universal injunctions completely upends checks and balances as we know them, weakening the power of the judiciary and handing the executive untold power at the expense of individual rights. After the Civil War, our nation set a new course for ensuring that all people would have the protection of the law, with the courts acting as a crucial vehicle for securing that justice. By gutting courts of that power, this Supreme Court has ended that journey, leaving every person living in this country to fend for themselves. In doing so, it has handed massive power to the Trump administration — and every other future administration — to carry out lawless and unconstitutional actions without concern that a court can stop it. If last year’s Trump immunity decision was the crowning of a king, this decision is the Court bending the knee.”