SCOTUS Case Has Big Implications for Trump Agenda

The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Thursday in a case that has major implications for President Trump's agenda. The case revolves around Trump's wish to end birthright citizenship, but it will focus on whether federal judges have the power to stop such policy moves nationwide and not just in their own jurisdictions.

• As NPR explains, the case stems from Trump's push to end the longstanding practice of granting citizenship to anyone born in the US. Three federal judges have ruled that Trump's move is unconstitutional, and all imposed nationwide injunctions on the practice.
• The Justice Department wants the court to limit lower-court judges' ability to put such injunctions, sometimes called universal injunctions, into place, per the AP. "This Court should declare that enough is enough," the department wrote in a legal brief to the court, describing the practice as judicial overreach.

• Axios provides some context to the dispute, noting that there's "a good-faith, non-ideological argument that courts are handing down too many" nationwide injunctions. "There are more than 600 district court judges in the US—when all of them have the power to freeze a presidential policy, lawsuits can grind the presidency to a halt more easily than ever before."
• But while that is the primary focus of the case, Thursday's arguments will almost certainly dig into the birthright citizenship issue in particular. The 14th Amendment states that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States." The Supreme Court ruled more than a century ago that it protects infants born here, notes the New York Times. Trump is essentially challenging that interpretation, and the arguments may at least "provide a hint" as to where the justices stand on the matter, per the Times.

(More Supreme Court stories.)