Private sector employers weigh Supreme Court’s ban on nationwide injunctions

The Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Trump v. CASA that banned federal district court judges from issuing nationwide injunctions was met with mixed feelings among employer groups. Some of the most well-known injunctions were sought by employers—against the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) vaccine mandate, federal contractors’ minimum wage, certain expansive pregnancy regulations, and more. On the other hand, many opposed the use of such injunctions against a number of President Trump’s employer-supportive Executive Orders. Now that the Supreme Court has issued its decision, employers are figuring out how they can protect their rights under the new legal regime.

Influence of national organizations diminished?

As is true of many traditional special-interest litigants, an immediate result of the Court’s ruling may be to reduce the power and influence of the national employer organizations. It’s still to be ironed out precisely how the standing requirements of class actions will apply when a national employer organization—the Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), Business Roundtable—seeks to sue on behalf of all of its members.

The current thinking is that such suits will face skeptical jurists and that individual corporations will be compelled to seek injunctive relief on their own—a slow and costly process that, not incidentally, strengthens the power of the executive and its agencies.

Direct challenge to regulation