Opponents of President Trump’s agenda are celebrating a nationwide injunction against his plan to defund sanctuary cities, issued last month by a federal judge. They are also hoping similar rulings against Trump’s second travel ban are upheld in appeals courts this month.
But only a few months ago, liberals opposed such injunctions — because they were hobbling the Obama administration’s agenda. In 2015 and 2016, conservative plaintiffs obtained nationwide injunctions in Texas courts, holding back a host of Obama initiatives on immigration, transgender rights, labor regulation and other issues.
Liberals were right to criticize the sweeping nature of those injunctions. Even if the government policy was unlawful, the argument went, a nationwide ruling was improper because a single federal judge shouldn’t make nationwide law. A Texas judge, they argued, shouldn’t decide what the law is in New York.
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