Senate hearing spotlights rise of nationwide injunctions and bipartisan reform proposals

A joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution and Subcommittee on Federal Courts heard sharply differing views on nationwide (also called universal) injunctions and proposals to limit their reach.

Senator Ted Cruz, chairman of the Subcommittee on Federal Courts, told the panel that single district judges have issued nationwide injunctions that effectively override the president’s policies, and urged Congress to act to rein in what he called “judicial tyranny.” “One unelected district judge sitting in a courtroom … can now issue a nationwide injunction that ties the hands of the president of the United States for all 330,000,000 Americans,” Cruz said.

Proposals discussed at the hearing ranged from statutory changes to procedural fixes. Witnesses and senators described several near-term options: requiring multi-judge panels to decide preliminary nationwide relief, automatically staying a district court’s nationwide order for a brief period to allow expedited appellate review, consolidating venue for challenges to federal…