As reported by KESQ
Basic Books
The Supreme Court has increasingly used emergency orders to shape the law in cases concerning a variety of hot-button issues
By Devan Cole, CNN
Washington (CNN) — The Supreme Court has increasingly used emergency orders to shape the law in cases concerning a variety of hot-button issues, a move that has quietly given the court more power over the years, CNN Supreme Court analyst Steve Vladeck says in a new book released Tuesday on the so-called “shadow docket.”
Officially known as the emergency docket, it has come to be known by court watchers as its shadow docket since unsigned and unexplained orders can allow the justices to act on a case while also shielding the legal analysis behind the decision and the vote count. By contrast, the high court’s merits docket includes a full briefing and hearing process that produces the formal opinions the justices typically issue in May and June.
The change manifested itself during the Trump administration, where the Justice Department used the docket to seek relief in cases that affect wide swaths of the country and that would have usually been decided by the justices following the normal process.
“In just four years Trump’s solicitor generals sought emergency relief from the Supreme Court a total of forty-one times – a more than twentyfold increase over (George W.) Bush’s and (Barack) Obama’s SGs combined,” Vladeck, also a University of Texas Law professor, writes in “The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic.”
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New book explores how the Supreme Court uses its ‘shadow docket’ to change the law
