Attorneys are urging a federal judge in Maryland to use an alternative legal mechanism for granting a sweeping block on President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship order after the Supreme Court ruled against the use of nationwide injunctions.
A conference on June 30 marked the first set of public arguments in which attorneys and a judge attempted to wrestle with the implications of the Supreme Court’s decision just three days prior. Although the Supreme Court said nationwide injunctions were likely inconsistent with judges’ authority, it allowed plaintiffs like the ones in Maryland to pursue broad relief through class actions.
Class actions generally entail judges allowing a plaintiff to represent a larger group of people—otherwise known as a class—and seek relief, such as injunctions, for that class. Quickly after the Supreme Court’s June 27 opinion, attorneys for immigrant organizations and pregnant women asked the federal court in Maryland to recognize a class of people that was made up of people who would be ineligible for birthright citizenship as a consequence of Trump’s order….