A significant Supreme Court ruling on nationwide injunctions could greatly impact the Trump administration, said Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University and Fox News contributor, on Tuesday.
The high court is set to rule on practices that can presently stop executive branch policies impacting the whole country. Conservatives have claimed that injunctions are being strategically pursued in left-leaning jurisdictions to undermine the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement and deportation agenda.
“It’s going to be an enormous decision potentially,” Turley shared with “Fox & Friends,” noting that a decision may come on Thursday. “For the administration in the immigration areas, as well as other areas, the court could very well say, ‘Enough. We’re not going to have individual judges freezing the entire United States government on critical programs like this.”
Turley noted that many nationwide injunctions are filed in “favorable” jurisdictions before judges perceived to be sympathetic to the plaintiffs, effectively halting the president’s policies.
He pointed to U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy, a Boston-based federal judge overseeing a class-action lawsuit brought by illegal migrants challenging deportations to third countries—nations that are not their country of origin—such as South Sudan and El Salvador. The countries have reportedly been considered by the administration as destinations in its current deportation efforts.
Murphy had previously ordered the Trump administration to retain in U.S. custody any illegal migrants facing deportation to a country not “explicitly” listed in their removal orders. However, this week, the court granted the administration’s request to stay that injunction, allowing deportations to third countries to proceed.
Turley analyzed the implications of the ruling during his appearance on Tuesday. “The lower court judge said that, ‘You’re sending these people to countries that you’ve advised Americans to leave because of the violence.’
“But ICE is saying, ‘Look, there’s a reason why their home countries don’t want them. Countries are not clamoring to get more felons to augment their home population, and that’s not our fault. It’s your fault. You committed crimes here, and you are deportable, and we’re not a travel agency, so if your home country doesn’t want you, then we’re going to find the next best option.’ With this order, they’re allowed to do that,” he added, per Fox News.
