The Supreme Court ruled just last week to ostensibly end the preferred tactic of Democrat-appointed judges to block aspects of President Donald Trump's policy agenda with "universal" injunctions, though the justices would still allow some district court rulings to have nationwide affect through the more limited use of class-action lawsuits and the Administrative Procedures Act.

Just a few days later and in apparent defiance of that decision, an Obama-appointed judge in Washington D.C. utilized all three judicial tools -- nationwide injunction, class-action suit, and the APA -- to block a Trump order that largely prevented illegal migrants from claiming asylum after crossing the border, according to Fox News.

The judge's move seemingly confirmed the warning issued in Justice Samuel Alito's concurring opinion that, without additional strict guidance from the high court, lower court judges would soon find a way to exploit the "loophole" of class-action suits and APA claims to sidestep the general prohibition against universal injunctions.

District judge blocks Trump's order limiting asylum claims

On President Trump's first day of his second term, he issued an executive order intended to crack down on illegal immigration, including the abuse of asylum claims by illegal migrants at the border, by citing certain statutory authorities within the Immigration and Nationality Act that allowed him to suspend or restrict various provisions of the law, if necessary.

That order was predictably challenged by several activist groups and individual asylum seekers, and on Wednesday, Obama-appointed D.C. District Judge Randolph Moss issued a massive 128-page ruling in favor of the plaintiffs and against the president, though he did delay the effective date of his order by 14 days to allow the administration a chance to appeal the decision.

Moss determined that, regardless of the statutory provisions cited directly by Trump as authorizing his executive actions, "neither the INA nor the Constitution grants the President ... authority to replace the comprehensive rules and procedures set forth in the INA and the governing regulations with an extra-statutory, extra-regulatory regime for repatriating or removing individuals from the United States, without an opportunity" for migrants to claim asylum or other protections.

In applying that determination, the judge granted a request from the plaintiffs to certify them as representatives of a broad class that consists of "all individuals who are or will be subject to the Proclamation and/or its implementation and who are now or will be present in the United States."

Taking the matter a step further, Moss also declared Trump's proclamation to be "unlawful" and, under the auspices of the APA, "set aside" and vacated the president's order, which he then bolstered with a nationwide injunction to prevent it from being enforced against anyone, anywhere.

The Supreme Court just ended nationwide injunctions ... or did they?

Judge Moss's ruling appears to fly in the face of the Supreme Court's major decision last week in Trump v. CASA, which sought to end the increasingly abused tactic of nationwide injunctions that predominantly Democrat-appointed judges were using to surpass their limited jurisdictions and block President Trump's executive orders and policy agenda across the country.

Noting the relatively rare instances in which a judge might legitimately need to make a decision that would apply universally, however, the majority opinion left available to district judges the use of class-action certifications and the APA's allowance for unlawful agency actions to be vacated or "set aside" as unenforceable.

Yet, in a concurring opinion, Justice Alito cautioned that the court's precedent-setting ruling "will have very little value" if lower court judges weren't compelled to strictly abide by the existing limitations of class-action suits and the APA, and wrote, "Lax enforcement of the requirements for third-party standing and class certification would create a potentially significant loophole to today’s decision."

Immediately exploiting the "loophole"

Not even a full week had elapsed before Justice Alito's prescient warning was realized, as White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller fumed in an X post on Wednesday about Judge Moss's ruling that appears to have thoroughly exploited the "loophole" left open by the Supreme Court.

"To try to circumvent the Supreme Court ruling on nationwide injunctions a marxist judge has declared that all potential FUTURE illegal aliens on foreign soil (eg a large portion of planet earth) are part of a protected global 'class' entitled to admission into the United States," Miller wrote.

Put that way, the broad expanse of the judge's ruling is indeed breathtaking, and it will be interesting to see if the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, or perhaps even the Supreme Court itself, acts with great haste to remind the district judge of the limitations of his jurisdiction.