Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/16pdf/16-1436_l6hc.pdf
Page Number: 9

Cite as:  582 U. S. ____ (2017) 

9 

Per Curiam
 

A 

To  begin,  we  grant  both  of  the  Government’s  petitions
for certiorari and consolidate the cases for argument.  The 
Clerk is directed to set a briefing schedule that will permit 
the  cases  to  be  heard  during  the  first  session  of  October
Term  2017.  (The  Government  has  not  requested  that  we 
expedite  consideration  of  the  merits  to  a  greater  extent.) 
In  addition  to  the  issues  identified  in  the  petitions,  the 
parties  are  directed  to  address  the  following  question:
“Whether the challenges to §2(c) became moot on June 14,
2017.” 

B 
We  now  turn  to  the  preliminary  injunctions  barring
enforcement  of  the  §2(c)  entry  suspension.  We  grant  the
Government’s  applications  to  stay  the  injunctions,  to  the
extent  the  injunctions  prevent  enforcement  of  §2(c)  with 
respect  to  foreign  nationals  who  lack  any  bona  fide  rela-
tionship with a person or entity in the United States.  We 
leave the injunctions entered by the lower courts in place 
with  respect  to  respondents  and  those  similarly  situated,
as specified in this opinion.  See infra, at 11–12. 

Crafting  a  preliminary  injunction  is  an  exercise  of  dis-
cretion  and  judgment,  often  dependent  as  much  on  the 
equities of a given case as the substance of the legal issues 
it  presents.  See  Winter  v.  Natural  Resources  Defense 
Council, Inc., 555 U. S. 7, 20, 24 (2008); 11A C. Wright, A.
Miller, & M. Kane, Federal Practice and Procedure §2948
(3d ed. 2013).  The purpose of such interim equitable relief 
is  not  to  conclusively  determine  the  rights  of  the  parties, 
University of Tex. v. Camenisch, 451 U. S. 390, 395 (1981), 
but to balance the equities as the litigation moves forward.
In  awarding  a  preliminary  injunction  a  court  must  also 
“conside[r] . . . the overall public interest.”  Winter, supra, 
at  26.  In  the  course  of  doing  so,  a  court  “need  not  grant 
the  total  relief  sought  by  the  applicant  but  may  mold  its