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In the days of old, reading judicial opinions was a (relatively) easy way to understand how and why the Supreme Court justices arrived at a legal conclusion to a pressing issue. Now you have to hope that their rationale isn’t black boxed behind the shadow docket, a once boring way of dealing with procedural matters that has morphed into determining huge legal questions pertaining to abortion, the EPA, the list goes on. Even the justices have complained about the morphing importance the shadow docket is taking on. Most recent is Justice Kagan; Reuters has coverage:
Justice Elena Kagan said the U.S. Supreme Court would be better off spending less time hurrying through cases on its emergency docket.
“It’s a very hard problem,” Kagan said on Monday in an hour-long interview with a professor at New York University’s law school. “I don’t think we do our best work in this way.”
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There’s no denying the bit about shadow docketing not being their best work. That said, when their work includes things like Clarence Thomas appreciating how skilled you have to be to mow down a crowd with a bump stock or Justice Kagan’s Seussian footnoting, it isn’t like there’s much competition.
US Supreme Court’s Kagan Says Emergency Docket Does Not Lead To Court’s Best Work [Reuters]
Earlier: Is This How Abortion Goes Out? Not With A Bang, But A Whimper
The Shadow Docket Has Gotten So Bad, Even John Roberts Is Pissed About It
Ketanji Brown Jackson Rails Against Supreme Court’s Over Use Of Shadow Docket
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Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.