Seventh Circuit Narrows Injunction Against DOJ's Sanctuary Cities Crackdown

Steven D. Schwinn, John Marshall Law School

The Seventh Circuit earlier this week narrowed the nationwide injunction against AG Sessions's crackdown on Chicago's sanctuary-cities practices so that it now only applies "as to the imposition of the conditions on the City of Chicago," and not the "geographic areas in the United States beyond the City of Chicago pending the disposition of the case by the en banc court."

The ruling means that the injunction now applies only to Chicago, and not nationwide.

The ruling was expected: the court said that it'd rule on the issue as soon as the Supreme Court handed down the travel ban decision.

The ruling gave no reasons for restricting the injunction. Recall that on Tuesday, in the travel ban case, the Court declined to address the issue of whether a lower court can issue a nationwide injunction. (It didn't have to rule on this, because it upheld the travel ban.)