A court injunction is an order from a judge that tells a person, a business or a government to do something or, more often, to stop doing something. Most of the time, when a headline says a judge “blocked” a law, a rule or a policy, the judge issued an injunction.
Courts usually decide disputes after the harm is done, by ordering one side to pay money. An injunction exists for situations where money cannot fix the problem, such as losing health coverage, being evicted or having a vote thrown out. Instead of paying for harm later, the court tries to prevent it.
There are three main kinds of court injunction, and they come at different points in a case. The first is a temporary restraining order, often called a TRO. It is an emergency order that a judge can issue very quickly, sometimes within hours, to freeze things in place for a short period, usually a couple of weeks. The second is a preliminary injunction. It lasts while the case moves forward, which can take months or years, and it is meant to keep the situation stable until the court reaches a final decision. The third is a permanent injunction. It comes at the end of a case, after the judge has decided who is right, and it lasts unless a higher court overturns it.
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A judge does not grant an injunction just because someone asks. For a preliminary injunction, federal courts generally look at four questions. Is the person asking likely to win the case? Will they suffer serious harm that cannot be undone if the court does nothing? Does the balance of hardships favor them over the other side? Is the order in the public interest? When the government is the one being sued, the last two questions are usually weighed together. The person asking carries the burden of proof.
Injunctions are a main tool in fights over government power. When states, cities, companies or individuals believe a federal agency or a state government has broken the law, they often ask a court to stop the action before it takes effect. The losing side can appeal, and an appeals court or the Supreme Court can pause the injunction while it considers the case. That is why a policy can be blocked one week and back in effect the next.
Another question is how far an injunction reaches. For years, some federal judges issued orders that blocked a government policy for everyone in the country, not just the people who sued. In June 2025, in a case called Trump v. CASA, the Supreme Court ruled that federal judges generally cannot issue these universal injunctions and should limit relief to the parties in the case. Courts still have other tools. In lawsuits challenging federal regulations, a judge can vacate a rule, which means canceling it altogether, so it no longer applies to anyone.
A real example shows how these pieces fit together. In 2026, a coalition of 25 states and the District of Columbia sued the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services over a rule that narrowed who counts as medically frail and is exempt from new Medicaid work requirements. On October 29, 2026, a federal judge in Boston ruled that the agency went beyond what Congress allowed. He vacated that part of the rule nationwide and issued a permanent injunction barring the agency from enforcing it, while giving the states that sued extra time before coverage could be cut over medical frailty decisions.
A court injunction can decide whether a family keeps its benefits, whether a new voting rule applies on Election Day, whether a factory can open or whether a tenant can stay in a home while a dispute plays out. When a law or rule is announced, it is not always the final word. Whether it ever touches your life may depend on what a judge orders next and how long that order lasts.
