Tipsheet

Justice Kagan's 2022 Remarks About National Injunctions Comes Back to Haunt Her

Democrats are reeling from the Supreme Court's decision in Trump v. CASA, Inc., where the Supreme Court curtailed the national injunction power of lower courts. For sure, liberals are going to find ways around, and they already are, but the judicial coup against the Trump administration took a severe blow. Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the opinion (via SCOTUSblog):

Barrett acknowledged arguments that “the universal injunction ‘give[s] the Judiciary a powerful tool to check the Executive Branch.’ But federal courts do not exercise general oversight of the Executive Branch; they resolve cases and controversies consistent with the authority Congress has given them,” she emphasized. “When a court concludes that the Executive Branch has acted unlawfully, the answer is not for the court to exceed its power, too.” 

Justice Kagan also dissented, but people rehashed her 2022 remarks on national injunctions, which were quite different from her opinion now. As CNN’s Scott Jennings noted, I wonder what changed.  

I think we know. It has to do with some guy named President Donald J. Trump.