Amna Nawaz
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WATCH: Hawley questions law professor over her stance on judicial rulings
Posted
June 4, 2025
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June 4, 2025
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9:42Now PlayingSen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., interrogated Kate Shaw, a University of Pennsylvania Law School professor, over her stance on federal judges issuing nationwide injunctions at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee Tuesday.
Hawley repeatedly asked Shaw to provide a principle under which she thinks it's reasonable for judges to issue nationwide injunctions. In a nationwide injunction, a federal court forces the government to stop enforcing a rule or law universally, regardless of who is involved in the court case. The Supreme Court is currently considering three cases in which President Donald Trump’s administration is challenging the constitutionality of nationwide injunctions.
“How can our system of law survive on those principles, professor?” Hawley asked Shaw, arguing that her beliefs on the use of nationwide injunctions change with the party of the president.
Though Hawley did not give Shaw enough time to respond, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., allotted some of his time to allow her to answer.
“Courts are part of our democracy, right? They have served this rights-protecting and democracy-facilitating function from basically the beginning, whatever the original design of the Constitution was,” Shaw said. “And it is not undemocratic or anomalous for courts to sometimes strike down acts of the president or of Congress when they conflict with the fundamental law, which is the Constitution, which in our system, courts have long had the primary role in enforcing.”
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