the.com/injunction
a judge's polite-looking note that means stop, or else the law gets ugly.
means A court order that legally compels someone to do, or more often stop doing, a specific thing.
from From Latin 'injungere,' to join onto, fasten, or impose — built from 'in-' (on) plus 'jungere' (to join), the same root that yokes us to 'junction' and 'yoke' itself. The sense traveled through 'injunctio,' an order or charge laid upon you, into Late Middle English law, where it became the command a judge fastens onto a person whether they like it or not.
- two flavors
- prohibitory stops you, mandatory forces you to act
- contempt risk
- defying one means fines or jail
- ancient roots
- English courts of equity invented them centuries ago
- emergency option
- temporary restraining orders move before full trial
- global reach
- some now block conduct across entire nations
google v oracle — us supreme court 2021 case where google sought injunction against oracle's copyright claims over java api
elon musk twitter acquisition — delaware court 2022 denied musk's attempt to get injunction blocking the $44b deal he was trying to escape