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Supreme Court hands Trump major win, limits judges’ ability to block birthright citizenship order nationwide

www.politico.com

Just a moment...

47 comments
  • The main takeaways here are:

    The justices, in a 6-3 vote along ideological lines, said that in most cases, judges can only grant relief to the parties who brought a particular lawsuit and may not extend those decisions to protect other individuals without going through the process of converting a suit into a class action.

    The court did not rule on the legality of Trump’s order purporting to end birthright citizenship, although the three liberal justices said the president’s directive was clearly unlawful.

    So, the plaintiffs will need to certify as a class in order for judges to issue nationwide injunctions now. That's a pretty huge shift.

    • Man, what a great year for anarchism in the USA, first we had a No Kings day, now we have a No Citizens day! /gallows humor

      Fr tho, this is awful. It seems like for now at least everybody needs to get their own lawyers and court dates to prove they're a citizen if the Trump administration wants to go after you. BTW, a lot of law firms have struck deals with the administration limiting the kinds of pro bono work they will do. Also deportations to third party countries are legal for now. Also, they may deport you while you have a case pending and then do nothing to bring you back when a court does order it.

      So, yeah, they've probably created a "no due process needed, exile all the uppity poor brown queers and any other deviant troublemakers we don't like, unless they have someone inside the system that can get them a pass (and even then maybe do it anyway)" machine here. Call it fascism, dictatorship, totalitarianism, social darwinism, cyberpunk dystopia, whatever, I think we're here now.

      • Call it fascism, dictatorship, totalitarianism, social darwinism, cyberpunk dystopia, whatever, I think we’re here now.

        I think we've been there a long time it's just taken someone as chaotic and despotic as Trump to actually use those reigns of power for this kind of thing. I remember feeling similarly about the kind of shit we let Dubya Bush get away with, and then learning some history and realizing this kind of overreach horseshit went all the way back to Reagan... then all the way back to Nixon.

        The system was already this way, it was just waiting for the right twisted freak to fuck it all up from the inside.

    • That’s a pretty huge shit.

      fixed that for you

    • This is essentially just further entrenchment of the imperial executive theory.

      Methinks I’m gonna explore getting the fuck out of here for good.

  • Say Trump announces that you're not a citizen, that gay marriage doesn't exist, that all women must give birth annually, whatever. If you're victimized by it, and have the money or can find a freebie lawyer, maybe you sue the federal government, and maybe you win. But even if you win, you only win for you. The millions of others in exactly your same situation each need to file their own lawsuits, and hope to win. (Unless it's a class action lawsuit, which involves separate and very, very difficult legal hurdles.)

    If I'm understanding this wrong, and cripes I hope I am, please 'splain it to me.

  • Only in the aftermath will we know which moment was the final toppling, but for now, I'd nominate this.

47 comments