The Shadow Docket

NYTimes

 Doing the Shadow Docket is sleazy as no judge's names are recorded on the docket, which means it's the ultimate hedge on quick and dirty rulings impacting Americans in ways most disquieting. 

The Supreme Court long has had an emergency docket. These are matters where a party comes to the court for an order on an emergency basis without full briefing and oral argument. For example, those facing the death penalty often have gone to the court seeking a last-minute, emergency stay of execution. But as Stephen Vladeck documented in his excellent book, The Shadow Docket, over the past decade there was a notable growth in matters decided by the court on its emergency docket.

Since Professor Vladeck’s book was published in 2023, the emergency docket has taken on even greater significance. In the 2023-24 term, there were 44 matters on the emergency docket. In the 2024-25 term, through June 27 (the last day decisions were released), there were 113 matters on the emergency docket.

Illustration - William Hennessy

More than three dozen federal judges have told The New York Times that the Supreme Court’s flurry of brief, opaque emergency orders in cases related to the Trump administration have left them confused about how to proceed in those matters and are hurting the judiciary’s image with the public.

At issue are the quick-turn orders the Supreme Court has issued dictating whether Trump administration policies should be left in place while they are litigated through the lower courts. That emergency docket, a growing part of the Supreme Court’s work in recent years, has taken on greater importance amid the flood of litigation challenging President Trump’s efforts to expand executive power.

While the orders are technically temporary, they have had broad practical effects, allowing the administration to deport tens of thousands of people, discharge transgender military service members, fire thousands of government workers and slash federal spending.

The striking and highly unusual critique of the nation’s highest court from lower court judges reveals the degree to which litigation over Mr. Trump’s agenda has created strains in the federal judicial system.

According to the majority ...

Sixty-five judges responded to a Times questionnaire sent to hundreds of federal judges across the country. Of those, 47 said the Supreme Court had been mishandling its emergency docket since Mr. Trump returned to office.

Any questions?