Sonia Sotomayor Focuses On Class Action Concerns In Birthright Citizenship Case

Judge Sonia Sotomayor questions attorneys during oral arguments in a key case involving birthright citizenship.

Transcript

00:00I find it hard to understand how a district court, in looking at a preliminary injunction

00:10under the winter factors, where we said that the likelihood of success on the merits is

00:17the keystone, how we could separate that out and say the keystone of whether you're entitled

00:24to universal injunction is the only merits question because the other factors are not

00:32eliminated by winter.

00:34You have to balance the equities and you can't balance the equities without the merits, correct?

00:39I think that's right.

00:40I think also irreparable harm is going to be very difficult for the government to prove

00:45if it's not contesting or at least not defending the constitutionality of the order because

00:50the government has no interest in enforcing an unconstitutional order.

00:54I'd also note there's a quote from Professor Bray in Justice Gorsuch's Texas Concurrents

01:00and it's, in equity, it all connects.

01:02The broader and deeper the relief the plaintiff seeks, the stronger the plaintiff's story has

01:06to be.

01:07So I think there really is kind of an equitable consideration here of the merits as well that

01:11just can't be extracted from the state.

01:13Now the state has explained why it can't pursue class actions.

01:17So it really, it admits it's limited to whether it's entitled to complete relief.

01:25But how about your organization?

01:29You sort of answered it, but I wanted to pin you down on that.

01:33Do you believe that associational organizations can seek class action?

01:39I believe our individual plaintiffs certainly can.

01:41Yes, there's no question.

01:42I am nervous about the government's suggestion that it's going to oppose our class certification

01:47motion if we were to file one.

01:48I mean, class certification can be very discovery intensive.

01:53It could be the sort of thing that really delays our plaintiffs from getting the relief that

01:57they seek.

01:58Yes, thank you.

02:16Yeah.