Sen. John Kennedy: SCOTUS Should Seize Chance to Eliminate Universal Injunctions

Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) says the U.S. Supreme Court should “jump at the chance” to end the practice of district court judges unilaterally preventing the federal government from enforcing laws or policies nationwide.

In an opinion piece for Fox News, Kennedy carefully lays out the history of how, initially, when a district court sided with a plaintiff’s challenge to a federal policy, that court’s injunction would only apply to the plaintiff in the case.

However, as Kennedy observes, in the 1960s, judges began to block the government from enforcing the policy against anyone, anywhere.

🧵 (1/10) Recently, SCOTUS was asked to decide whether district court judges can unilaterally stop the govt from enforcing a law or policy nationwide.

The court should jump at the chance to end universal injunctions.

Read my latest @FoxNewsOpinion:https://t.co/UaUbyrZWig

— John Kennedy (@SenJohnKennedy) May 19, 2025

Kennedy argues that the universal injunction gives individual judges extraordinary power to negate laws passed by Congress or policies enacted by a president, yet he points out that nowhere does the Constitution say that district courts actually have this power to bring the federal government to a screeching halt.

Universal injunctions were fairly rare with only 27 issued by the courts up until the 21st Century, according to Kennedy.

Biden faced 14 universal injunctions during his four year presidency while Trump has exceeded that number in only 4 months.

Kennedy says another problem with district judges issuing universal injunctions is that they are often issued following a preliminary hearing and without any jury, trial or testing of evidence.

Giving the most extreme jurists this kind of power is a bad idea, according to Kennedy, who notes that the government could successfully defend a policy before hundreds of district judges and still have a single district judge who disagrees wipe out the policy nationwide.

Solicitors General under both Biden and Trump have asked the Supreme Court to end universal injunctions, according to Kennedy.

Kennedy called upon the high court to end what he called “the rampant use of universal injunctions by district court judges threatens to destabilize our entire system of government.”