By Jacob Knutson
Citing the Supreme Court’s recent ruling curtailing nationwide injunctions, the Department of Justice (DOJ) asked a federal judge to weaken part of a previous court order against President Donald Trump’s sweeping anti-voting decree.
Beyond its potential impact in the battle over the voting order, the filing is also a stark example of how SCOTUS’ ruling in the nationwide injunctions case, Trump v. CASA, could give the administration a boost in other cases challenging Trump’s authoritarian power grab.
The DOJ asked District Judge Denise Casper July 3 to amend the portion of her previous court order that barred the government from enforcing Section 2d of Trump’s executive order.
That section of the Trump order requires public assistance agencies to assess citizenship before providing voter registration forms to enrollees.
The department argued that, to avoid running afoul of Trump v. CASA, in which SCOTUS banned universal injunctions, Casper must limit the part of her court order relating to Section 2d only to the 19 states, all Democratic-led, challenging Trump’s executive order.
“This Court can remediate Plaintiffs’ alleged harm by enjoining 2(d) as to only the Plaintiff states that are parties to this lawsuit,” DOJ lawyers wrote. “It should therefore modify the scope of its injunction accordingly.”
Legal experts told Democracy Docket recently that the Supreme Court did not explicitly rule out orders like Casper’s. The court’s majority opinion, written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, noted that there are times when narrow opinions “incidentally” provide relief to nonparties.
Ultimately, the court left the door open for injunctions that provide relief on a national basis by coincidence, though it stressed that lower-court judges like Casper must “determine whether a narrower injunction is appropriate.”
Editor’s Note: This story has been corrected from an earlier version, which reported incorrectly that DOJ asked the court to modify its order blocking changes to the national voter registration form. In fact, DOJ asked only for a modification of the portion of the court order relating to Section 2d of Trump’s executive order, which concerns checking citizenship at public assistance agencies. We regret the error.
Sen. Alex Padilla and Rep. Joseph Morelle sent a letter Monday to CISA leadership demanding answers.
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