Relief for Trump in sight — if Supreme Court special session reins in rogue judges
“What’s the difference between God and a federal judge?” goes the old joke. Answer: “God knows he’s not a federal judge.”
The district judges issuing scores of “nationwide” injunctions against President Trump appear to take this gag with deadly seriousness.
Under this dubious practice, a single federal judge claims the ability to block a law or executive order not just in his or her city or state, but throughout the country.
As Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch has wryly observed, they seem to think their power is not just nationwide, but “universal” or even “cosmic.”
But the Trump administration is looking to counter these judges’ overreach, without taking the politically and constitutionally extreme steps of impeachment or defying a court order.
It’s doing so through a canny Supreme Court filing that contested the nationwide injunctions blocking Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship.
The government’s plea in that case didn’t center on the problem of “birth tourism” — but instead presented the justices with a “modest” proposal: End nationwide injunctions because they violate the Constitution.
Last week, the court appeared to take Trump up on the offer, announcing a © New York Post
