When Should Judges Issue Nationwide Injunctions?

We the People

National Constitution Center

News, News Commentary, History

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 September 2019

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What are “nationwide injunctions”? When and why are they issued by federal courts? Have they been invoked more frequently in recent years, and, if so, how is that affecting how laws or executive orders are implemented nationwide? And is the term “nationwide injunctions” itself actually a misnomer? Two experts on these broad kinds of injunctions, Amanda Frost of American University’s Washington College of Law and Howard Wasserman of Florida International University, answer those questions. They also detail how nationwide injunctions have been used to block policies of both President Obama and President Trump – including immigration policies like DAPA and DACA under President Obama, and the so-called “travel ban” and third country asylum rule under President Trump – as well as civil rights policies like President Obama’s protections for transgender students using bathrooms that match their identities and President Trump’s ban on people with gender dysphoria serving in the military. Jeffrey Rosen hosts. Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, and welcome
0:07.1	to We The People, a weekly show of constitutional debate.
0:10.6	The National Constitution Center is a nonpartisan nonprofit chartered by Congress to increase awareness and understanding of the Constitution among the American people.
0:20.0	Today we explore the question of nationwide injunctions. What are they? When and why are they
0:27.0	issued? And why have they been involved in so many controversial cases recently, from the recent challenges to the third country
0:35.0	asylum rule, the travel ban case, can the president build the wall, and more.
0:39.8	Joining us to debate the constitutionality of this unfamiliar but crucially important judicial practice are two of America's leading scholars on the subject.
0:49.0	Amanda Frost is professor of law at American University's Washington College of Law.
0:53.6	She writes the Academic Round Up column for Skodes blog
0:56.4	and is the author of the New York Law Review article,
0:58.8	In Defense of Nationwide Injunctions.
1:01.4	Her book, Unmaking Americans, a history of citizenship stripping in the
1:05.2	United States, will be published in 2020. And Professor Frost is a member of the National
1:10.2	Constitution Center's Coalition of Freedom Advisory Board.
1:13.8	Amanda, it's great to have you on the show.
1:15.8	Thank you for having me.
1:17.8	And Howard Wasserman is Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development
1:22.0	at Florida International University
1:23.8	Law School. He's a frequent contributor to Scotis blog and author of the Lewis and
1:28.8	Clark Law Review article Nationwide Injunctions are really universal injunctions and they are never appropriate.
1:35.6	His books include understanding civil rights litigation.
1:38.7	Howard, thank you so much for joining.
	...

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