By Attorney General Raúl Labrador
Dear Friends,
I promised when I became Idaho’s 33rd Attorney General that I would be aggressive in defending the laws of our state and the constitutional rights of our citizens. Recently, the United States Supreme Court delivered a landmark victory that proves this approach was correct—and Idaho’s legal work helped make it possible.
In Trump v. Casa, the Supreme Court cited our case, Labrador v. Poe, six times when establishing new legal precedent that ends the era of a single federal judge blocking policies for the entire country, referred to as “universal injunctions.” When the nation’s highest court uses Idaho’s case as legal precedent to rule on a critically important constitutional question, it proves that principled legal strategy works.
This victory began right here in Idaho. When we defended our Vulnerable Child Protection Act, which protects children from dangerous and irreversible gender hormones and procedures, activists challenged the law. A federal district judge issued a universal injunction that blocked Idaho from enforcing the entire law anywhere in the state.
We immediately appealed this judicial overreach to the Ninth Circuit, arguing that the injunction should apply only to the two plaintiffs who sued, not every person in Idaho. When the Ninth Circuit refused to narrow the scope, we took the case directly to the Supreme Court.
In April 2024, the Supreme Court granted our request in Labrador v. Poe. Justice Gorsuch wrote a powerful concurring opinion explaining why these universal injunctions circumvent normal judicial processes, force judges to make rushed, high-stakes, low-information decisions, and let parties by barring the enforcement of a duly enacted law against anyone through strategic judge shopping.
That legal reasoning became the foundation for this landmark decision. The Supreme Court used our precedent to rule that federal judges can no longer issue universal injunctions that let one judge in one courthouse block policies for the entire nation.
This couldn’t come at a better time. Americans watched in frustration during President Trump’s first term as single federal judges issued sweeping orders that blocked his agenda at every turn. Now in his second term, federal judges have continued issuing nationwide injunctions trying to stop President Trump from firing unaccountable bureaucrats, cutting wasteful USAID spending, and deporting criminal illegal aliens.
No longer should a single federal judge in California or New York issue an order that stops the Trump administration, or any future administration, from enforcing immigration law nationwide. And in the same way, federal judges should not prevent Idaho from enforcing our laws on the books across the state if only a handful of individuals sue. Federal judges must now limit their orders to the actual parties in front of them, not the whole country or state.
While liberal critics and the press—but I repeat myself—have attacked our approach throughout my time as Attorney General, the results speak for themselves. When the Supreme Court cites your case to establish binding legal precedent that protects constitutional governance nationwide, that is a clear sign that we are doing something right.
I’m proud that Idaho’s legal work established the precedent for the Supreme Court victory in Trump v. Casa. We didn’t just defend our state’s sovereignty—we helped restore the proper balance of power between judges and the American people. When voters elect leaders to enact their priorities, no single federal judge should have the power to override the will of millions. That principle now stands as the law of the land.
Best Regards,
About Raúl Labrador
Raúl Labrador is the 33rd Attorney General of Idaho. The Office of the Attorney General provides legal representation for the State of Idaho. This representation is furnished to state agencies, offices and boards in the furtherance of the state's legal interests. The office is part of state government’s executive branch and its duties are laid out in the Idaho Constitution.
