00:00We will hear argument this morning in case 24A884, Trump v. Cassa, Inc., and the consolidated
00:11cases.
00:12General Sauer.
00:13Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the Court.
00:17On January 20, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14160, protecting the meaning
00:24and value of American citizenship.
00:27This order reflects the original meaning of the 14th Amendment, which guaranteed citizenship
00:32to the children of former slaves, not to illegal aliens or temporary visitors.
00:39Multiple district courts promptly issued nationwide or universal injunctions blocking this order,
00:44and a cascade of such universal injunctions followed.
00:48Since January 20, district courts have now issued 40 universal injunctions against the
00:52federal government, including 35 from the same five judicial districts.
00:58This is a bipartisan problem that has now spanned the last five presidential administrations.
01:04Universal injunctions exceed the judicial power granted in Article III, which exists only to
01:09address the injury to the complaining party.
01:12They transgress the traditional bounds of equitable authority, and they create a host of practical
01:17problems.
01:19Such injunctions prevent the percolation of novel and difficult legal questions.
01:23They encourage rampant forum shopping.
01:26They require judges to make rushed, high-stakes, low-information decisions.
01:31They circumvent Rule 23 by offering all the benefits but none of the burdens of class certification.
01:37They operate asymmetrically, forcing the government to win everywhere while the plaintiffs can win
01:42anywhere.
01:43They invert the ordinary hierarchy of appellate review.
01:48They create the ongoing risk of conflicting judgments.
01:52They increase the pressures on this court's emergency docket.
01:56They create what Justice Powell described as repeated and essentially head-on confrontations
02:01between the life-tenured and representative branches of government.
02:05Can they disrupt the Constitution's careful balancing of the separation of powers?
02:10I welcome the court's questions.
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