Courts once used injunctions to break strikes, then to desegregate schools
An injunction is a court order telling someone to act or to stop, backed by the threat of contempt, fines or jail. American judges used this tool first against striking unions around 1900 and later to enforce school integration after Brown v Board of Education, sometimes taking over the running of schools themselves.
The remedy grew up in the English courts of equity, with roots in the Roman interdict. Traditionally a court grants one only when money damages would not put things right. Because it is an equitable remedy, judges weigh fairness and good faith, and a claimant who has delayed too long or behaved badly can be refused. An order can be prohibitory, such as barring use of a stolen trade secret, or mandatory, such as requiring someone to clean up an oil spill or tear down a spite fence, and many combine both. Courts can later modify or lift an order if circumstances change.
The strike-breaking era began after the government used an injunction against the Pullman boycott in 1894. Employers soon won sweeping orders against organising of all kinds; one in the 1920s effectively stopped the United Mine Workers from even talking to workers bound by anti-union contracts. Labour complained of government by injunction, and Congress curbed the practice with the Norris–LaGuardia Act in 1932. Orders under which a court effectively runs a school, prison or hospital are called structural injunctions.
American practice recognises three stages. A temporary restraining order can be issued quickly, even without notifying the other side, and lasts only until a hearing. A preliminary injunction preserves the status quo before trial and requires showing a likely win. A permanent injunction follows trial; in eBay v. MercExchange the Supreme Court set out four tests, including irreparable harm and the public interest. In 1999 the Court tied federal injunctive power to the limits of the English Court of Chancery around 1789.
England added the super-injunction, an order whose very existence cannot be reported. In 2009 one obtained for the oil trader Trafigura surfaced only through a question in Parliament, which is protected by privilege. Alan Rusbridger of The Guardian is credited with coining the term.
Source: Injunction
