TrendMacro conversation with Judge Gregg Costa on nationwide judicial injunctions -- are tariffs next?

District federal judges can issue injunctions against presidential executive orders and other policies on a nationwide basis, effectively halting them, even though they lack the power to strike them down by judgment. Plaintiffs can forum-shop, filing in politically sympathetic districts, and if they fail, just file again somewhere else until one of the almost 1,000 federal judges agree with them. Costa points out that this judicial power has grown over the last 25 years, as presidents starting with Obama exercised increasing unilateral authority to make policy without the cooperation of Congress. The injunctions are a salutary redress of executive overreach, yet they themselves entail judicial overreach. Dozens of suits against the tariffs brought under the IEEPA of 1977 are working themselves through multiple courts and districts. One will almost inevitably result in an injunction against the tariffs on the grounds that the use of IEEPA was pretextual. Trump can sue to have that or any other injunction overturned, seeking expedited appeal all the way up to the Supreme Court. SCOTUS may rule this year on nationwide injunctions, perhaps overturning them altogether, or perhaps require that they only be issued for certified classes in a class action suit.