By American Bar Association
Constitutional law expert Melissa Murray discussed upcoming Supreme Court decisions, President Trump’s executive orders and other pressing legal matters in a fireside chat on June 5 during the 2025 American Bar Association Equity Summit: Navigating the Future. She was joined by Wendy Shiba, chair of both the ABA Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Center and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advisory Council, which hosted the two-day virtual program.
Murray is the Frederick I. and Grace Stokes professor of law and faculty director for the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center at the New York University Law School. She is a 2023 recipient of the ABA Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, which honors women lawyers who have achieved professional excellence and paved the way for other women in the legal profession.
During the discussion, Murray outlined oral arguments heard last month at the Supreme Court challenging the nationwide injunctions that have stopped President Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship from going into effect. The case, she said, is broadly about the executive order but that “it is more specifically a question about whether the remedy that was used by the lower courts to stop the birthright citizenship EO — the universal injunction, the nationwide injunction — whether that remedy is permissible and something that Article III judges can invoke against the administration.”
The decision could “limit the force of the universal injunction, which will make it harder for individuals to challenge the spate of EOs that are already in the ether and that are likely coming from this administration,” Murray said.
“If we tinker with the nationwide injunction, if we limit the nationwide injunction, we are really going to be hamstringing courts,” Murray said.
Similarly, the Trump administration already has constrained the availability of legal resources “by going after nonprofits or by getting law firms to capitulate,” Murray said. “We don’t have enough legal resources right now to launch that kind of challenge to administration policies because there just aren’t that many lawyers available to do this kind of work pro bono.”
The summit brought together legal professionals, scholars and advocates to explore solutions to today’s most pressing social, legal and ethical challenges.
ABA President William R. Bay welcomed participants on the first day of the summit, reiterating that the ABA “will not retreat” from its work to support diversity, equity and inclusion in the association and the profession.
In the opening program, “Adapting Racial Justice Work in a Shifting Environment,” Matthew S. Manning, partner with Webb, Cason & Manning LLC in Corpus Christi, Texas, said “this is the time to stand up” to executive orders and other challenges to the legal profession and the clients they represent.
Other panel presentations included “Under Attack: Protecting Trans Communities in a Hostile Landscape”; “Navigating AI’s Challenges: Equity, Ethics and Impact (Ethics)”; and “Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice: Seeking Continued Equity.”
(https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2025/06/melissa-murray-aba-equity-summit/)
Constitutional law expert Melissa Murray discussed upcoming Supreme Court decisions, President Trump’s executive orders and other pressing legal matters in a fireside chat on June 5 during the 2025 American Bar Association Equity Summit: Navigating the Future. She was joined by Wendy Shiba, chair of both the ABA Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Center and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advisory Council, which hosted the two-day virtual program.
Murray is the Frederick I. and Grace Stokes professor of law and faculty director for the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center at the New York University Law School. She is a 2023 recipient of the ABA Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, which honors women lawyers who have achieved professional excellence and paved the way for other women in the legal profession.
During the discussion, Murray outlined oral arguments heard last month at the Supreme Court challenging the nationwide injunctions that have stopped President Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship from going into effect. The case, she said, is broadly about the executive order but that “it is more specifically a question about whether the remedy that was used by the lower courts to stop the birthright citizenship EO — the universal injunction, the nationwide injunction — whether that remedy is permissible and something that Article III judges can invoke against the administration.”
The decision could “limit the force of the universal injunction, which will make it harder for individuals to challenge the spate of EOs that are already in the ether and that are likely coming from this administration,” Murray said.
“If we tinker with the nationwide injunction, if we limit the nationwide injunction, we are really going to be hamstringing courts,” Murray said.
Similarly, the Trump administration already has constrained the availability of legal resources “by going after nonprofits or by getting law firms to capitulate,” Murray said. “We don’t have enough legal resources right now to launch that kind of challenge to administration policies because there just aren’t that many lawyers available to do this kind of work pro bono.”
The summit brought together legal professionals, scholars and advocates to explore solutions to today’s most pressing social, legal and ethical challenges.
ABA President William R. Bay welcomed participants on the first day of the summit, reiterating that the ABA “will not retreat” from its work to support diversity, equity and inclusion in the association and the profession.
In the opening program, “Adapting Racial Justice Work in a Shifting Environment,” Matthew S. Manning, partner with Webb, Cason & Manning LLC in Corpus Christi, Texas, said “this is the time to stand up” to executive orders and other challenges to the legal profession and the clients they represent.
Other panel presentations included “Under Attack: Protecting Trans Communities in a Hostile Landscape”; “Navigating AI’s Challenges: Equity, Ethics and Impact (Ethics)”; and “Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice: Seeking Continued Equity.”
(https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2025/06/melissa-murray-aba-equity-summit/)
