Jess Braven
Appearances
WSJ What’s News
Walmart to Raise Prices Due to Tariffs, Setting the Tone for Other Retailers
This was a very long argument, scheduled on a special day. The regular argument calendar ended in April. It went more than two hours long. And the issue was, can federal judges issue injunctions that block a government policy across the board, across the entire country? And there have been dozens of those issued against the Trump administration.
WSJ What’s News
Walmart to Raise Prices Due to Tariffs, Setting the Tone for Other Retailers
So the government came in today asking the court to say federal judges just can't do that. And that would mean in this case involving the specific issue, the president's executive order that essentially limits citizenship at birth, that order would go into effect in much of the country, but not all of it because more than 20 democratic led states would have injunctions applying to them.
WSJ What’s News
Walmart to Raise Prices Due to Tariffs, Setting the Tone for Other Retailers
So that was the underlying issue. But the top line issue was really this question of injunctions. What would be the broader implications of this case? The Justice Department wanted the Supreme Court to rule that those injunctions are improper and that, in fact, they want a ruling saying that federal judges cannot issue
WSJ What’s News
Walmart to Raise Prices Due to Tariffs, Setting the Tone for Other Retailers
injunctions that apply to non-parties, to people who are not litigants in the lawsuit. And so that raises a question, what about a policy that affects thousands or hundreds of thousands or millions of people? And if courts all think it's illegal, does every one of those people who is harmed by the illegal policy have to file his or her own lawsuit? to enjoin it? That's sort of the question here.
WSJ What’s News
Walmart to Raise Prices Due to Tariffs, Setting the Tone for Other Retailers
I mean, Justice Sonia Sotomayor tried to turn the issue inside out. What if a future president decides to confiscate all the guns in the country and people go to court to say that's violating the Second Amendment? Does every single gun owner in the country have to file his or her own lawsuit?
WSJ What’s News
Walmart to Raise Prices Due to Tariffs, Setting the Tone for Other Retailers
Or can a judge say, well, the Second Amendment provides the right to keep and bear arms, and so we're going to block the government from enforcing their illegal order. So in other words, if the court agrees with the Trump administration, this may not be the only provision of the Constitution that gets reinterpreted by either this president or a future one.