nationwide injunction

A nationwide injunction, also called a universal injunction, is a court order that bars the government from enforcing a challenged law or policy against anyone, not only the parties to the lawsuit. Such an order allows a single federal district judge to halt a federal policy across the entire country while litigation proceeds. In Trump v. CASA, Inc. (2025), the Supreme Court held 6-3 that federal district courts generally lack authority to issue injunctions broader than necessary to provide relief to the named plaintiffs, a ruling that arose from a challenge to Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order.