Justice Samuel Alito Asks Trump’s Lawyer: 'What Is The Point Of This Argument About Universal Injunctions?'

During Thursday's Supreme Court oral arguments, Justice Samuel Alito pressed Solicitor General John Sauer about universal injunctions.

Transcript

00:00You began by outlining what you see as the practical problems that have been created

00:07by universal injunctions.

00:12If we were to hold that the states have standing, and if it is possible for a plaintiff to get

00:21emergency certification of a class, would we, suppose we agreed with you on universal

00:27injunctions but allow those other two avenues?

00:32Would the practical problem be rectified to any substantial degree?

00:36Certainly, if there were an injunction that extended to all of the litigating states,

00:40that would cover a very substantial portion of the country, and also an emergency sort

00:46of class certification decision might also grant very broad relief.

00:51So the answer is that the practical problem would not be solved.

00:55And if that's the case, what is the point of this argument about universal injunctions?

01:01I think the point is that universal injunctions exceed traditional principles of Article 3,

01:07and they exceed the traditional equitable authority.

01:09And that's what yields all these sort of pathologies, so to speak, of the current practice of issuing

01:14them very, very easily.