Page:United States v. Texas (2023).pdf/24

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Cite as: 599 U. S. ____ (2023)
7

Gorsuch, J., concurring in judgment

this Court to invoke the All Writs Act, 28 U. S. C. §1651, to fashion its own injunction. And the possibility that this Court might award them relief, the States suggest, makes their injuries redressable after all. See Brief for Respondents 47; cf. post, at 12 (Alito, J., dissenting).

It’s an argument that yields more questions than answers. The parenthetical the States cite is a “curious” provision, one that “does not appear to have an analogue elsewhere in the United States Code.” Biden v. Texas, 597 U. S. ___, ___ (2022) (Barrett, J., dissenting) (slip op., at 4). Even assuming it permits this Court to award an injunction when a case comes to us on review, it does not obviously solve the States’ redressability problem. Normally, after all, a plaintiff must establish redressability from the outset of the suit. See Lujan, 504 U. S., at 561; see also id., at 570, n. 5 (plurality opinion). Not only that, a plaintiff must show a favorable decision is “ ‘likely’ ” to provide effectual relief. Id., at 561. When the States filed this suit, however, the possibility that it might find its way to this Court was speculative at best. See id., at 570, n. 5 (plurality opinion) (rejecting an argument that redressability could depend on “the fortuity that [a] case has made its way to this Court”).

Nor is that the only complication. Ordinarily, to win an injunction from any court, a party must satisfy several factors. See eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, L. L. C., 547 U. S. 388, 391 (2006). The States relegate any mention of these factors to a short, formulaic paragraph tacked onto the end of their brief. See Brief for Respondents 48. Worse, the only injunction they seek is one barring “implementation and enforcement” of the Guidelines—essentially an injunction imitating a vacatur order. Id., at 47. And as we have seen, an order like that would leave officials with their prosecutorial discretion intact. See supra, at 6. So, even if this Court were to take the unusual step of issuing and superintending its own injunction, giving the States the very order they seek is hardly sure to redress the injuries they assert.