Bray on universal injunctions

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Saturday, August 21, 2021

Bray on universal injunctions

Sam Bray comments on the universal injunction against repeal of the remain-in-Mexico policy. Bray calls out the “baffling” nonsense of the judge enjoining paragraphs of an agency memorandum, because “[p]eople get enjoined. Injunctions protect people from people. Or require people to do things.” He offers the following:

1. injunctions should be used for protection: they should protect plaintiffs (or plaintiff classes) from the enforcement actions of government officers;
2. when the problem is not with end-of-the-line enforcement, but rather is upstream, such as a failure in the process of creating a rule or policy, the proper remedy is not an injunction but mandamus, which has a different logic and is focused not on the protection of the plaintiff but on the officer’s performance of a legal duty;
3. the fact that mandamus has its own limiting principles, such as the need to show a clear violation of a legal duty, means that some close to the line violations will not be remedied;
4. point three is a feature of this proposal.

Well said.

Posted by Howard Wasserman on August 21, 2021 at 08:16 PM in Civil Procedure, Constitutional thoughts, First Amendment, Howard Wasserman, Judicial Process | Permalink

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