Noticias

The Supreme Court’s so-called “shadow docket” is not a new phenomenon. The justices have long considered cases on an emergency basis. However, the practice has gained greater significance since Donald Trump’s Presidency.

What Is the Shadow Docket?

The Supreme Court’s emergency docket is separate from its regular merits docket. It is generally reserved for emergent matters that require immediate Court intervention, such as staying an execution, halting a deportation, or preventing implementation of a lower court order. For instance, cases often involve emergency requests for a stay, which is a temporary suspension of a lower court order and is intended to prevent irreparable harm while a case proceeds through the courts.

Unlike a typical Supreme Court case, emergency matters are decided without full briefing and oral argument. In many cases, they are decided without a written opinion explaining the Court’s reasoning. Summary orders also typically don’t list how each justice voted. Hence, the term “shadow docket,” which University of Chicago law professor William Baude coined in 2015.

Rise in Emergency Matters Before the Court

The Supreme Court’s shadow docket has come under scrutiny in recent years, largely because of its exponential growth and the role it has played in deciding controversial issues like voting rights, abortion, and immigration. In the 2023-24 term, there were 44 matters on the emergency docket. In the 2024-25 term, the list grew to 113 matters.

While executions and deportation orders still comprise a large portion of the Court’s emergency matters, the shadow docket has been increasingly used to address challenges to presidential orders and actions. Since the end of the term, the justices have issued several rulings concerning legal challenges to actions by President Donald Trump. The majority have been 6-3 rulings, with Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissenting.

• In Trump v. American Federation of Government Employees, the Court stayed a preliminary injunction preventing the firings of government employees in many federal agencies.
• In McMahon v. New York, the justices lifted a district court’s preliminary injunction preventing mass terminations at the Department of Education.
• In Trump v. Boyle, the Supreme Court overturned a preliminary injunction halting the firing of three members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission who were protected from removal except when there was “cause” for firing.

The rise in emergency rulings is also fueling confusion regarding whether shadow docket rulings should be regarded as binding precedent. Merits decisions issued by a majority of the Court carry precedential weight, which means that they determine the outcome of future cases involving the same issues. However, non-merits orders have traditionally not been treated as binding on the lower courts.

Critics have also raised concern about the Court abandoning long-standing precedent without full briefing or oral argument. Justice Kagan wrote a dissent in Trump v. Wilcox, joined by Justices Sotomayor and Jackson, lamenting that “[o]ur emergency docket, while fit for some things, should not be used to overrule or revise existing law.” She explained that the Court’s ruling “allows the President to overrule Humphrey’s by fiat.”

Critics also contend that the shadow docket allows the justices to make consequential (and often controversial) decisions without the public scrutiny typically associated with its merits cases. The lack of oral arguments and written decisions also makes it challenging for the public and legal scholars to analyze the Court’s reasoning. As Professor Erwin Chemerinsky wrote on SCOTUSblog, “’Because I said so’ never is persuasive or satisfying. And it certainly should not be regarded as acceptable when it is the Supreme Court resolving important issues – even matters of life and death – without the slightest explanation.”

So, what’s the solution, assuming there is one?

To start, the Court could be more transparent by issuing full opinions, particularly when significant legal issues are at stake or precedent is being reconsidered. If justices can write lengthy dissents, writing a majority opinion doesn’t seem like a particularly big ask. The justices could also be more restrictive when considering what cases to decide on an emergency basis. In many recent matters brought before the Court by the Trump Administration, critics of the shadow docket contend that the harm to the government in delaying Supreme Court relief until the case can be heard on the merits would be minimal.

While legislation has been introduced to address the shadow docket, it has failed to advance. Congressional action remains unlikely in today’s political climate. Accordingly, the Court would likely have to impose these restrictions on itself. With the emergency docket poised to continue to play a significant role next term, all eyes will be on the justices.

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The New Jersey Education Association PAC has endorsed Rep. Mikie Sherrill for governor, voting to back a candidate after spending tens of millions to defeat her in the Democratic primary.

The state’s largest public employee union said Sherrill was a supporter of public education and will stand with its members to raise teacher salaries.

“Mikie Sherrill understands that a pension is a promise. Unlike Jack Ciattarelli, she will keep that promise by fully funding public employee pensions so that educators can have the economic security they have earned and the dignity they deserve,” said the new NJEA officers: President Steve Beatty, Vice President Petal Robertson and Secretary-Treasurer Tina Dare.  “She knows the promise of a secure pension is one important way to attract and retain dedicated professionals who will keep our public schools the best in the nation for years to come.

The Republican nominee, Jack Ciattarelli, declined to be interviewed by the PAC.

They praised Sherrill’s willingness to listen.

“She respects educators and will make sure our members have a place at the table and a real voice when education policy is made,” the three NJEA leaders stated.  “While Jack Ciattarelli refused to look our members in the eyes, she showed up and engaged in real conversation about the future of our public schools and our state.”

NJEA-related groups spent approximately $40 million in support of former Montclair Mayor Sean Spiller, then the sitting president of the teachers’ union, in the race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

“Her obvious compassion and commitment to our shared values made NJEA members’ decision to endorse her an easy one,” Beatty, Robertson and Dare said.  “Mikie Sherrill is a clear choice to lead New Jersey, and we are eager to work side by side with our members to help her win in November.”

The union leaders said that Sherill’s service as a congresswoman and U.S. Navy helicopter pilot shows “she has the intelligence, integrity and independence that voters want and New Jersey needs,”

“At a time when our nation is at a crossroads, she is ready to stand up for New Jersey and show America that there is a better way than what we see in Washington, D.C.,” Beatty, Robertson and and Dare said.

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For much of this year, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Tenafly) has been running for re-election without a Republican challenger despite the fact that his district came only 6,000 votes away from supporting Donald Trump in last year’s presidential election – but no longer.

Sean Kirrane, a corporate consultant, budding artificial intelligence entrepreneur, and father of two from River Vale, will run as a Republican for the 5th congressional district, which spans from the suburbs of Bergen County to the Pennsylvania border. Politico NJ first reported on Kirrane’s candidacy earlier today.

“I don’t want to be one of these people who sits around and complains and watches TV and says, ‘I could do it better than those people on TV,’ but doesn’t actually do anything about it,” Kirrane told the New Jersey Globe.

Kirrane, who has never run for office before, defined himself as a “socially moderate, fiscally responsible” Republican, and said he wanted his campaign to focus on two things above all others: sweeping affordable housing legislation and the creation of a universal health care system. Both ideas sound at first like progressive proposals rather than conservative ones, but Kirrane said his idea is to let the free market drive both.

“I’m not proposing a single-payer governmental health care system, where it’s a left-type concept. I’m proposing a paid-for system where it’s a free-market system,” he said. “Basically, we would create a designated plan for Americans and pay for it through the tax system on an income-level basis, but cost-sharing within that plan. But again, let the free market do what it does best and run these plans.”

Earlier this year, Gottheimer’s 2024 foe, Mary Jo Guinchard, announced that she would run against the congressman once again in 2026. Soon after Gottheimer lost a Democratic primary for governor and committed to running for re-election, however, Guinchard announced that she was ending her rematch campaign, though she did not say why.

Guinchard’s performance from 2024 is a good indication of how difficult it will be for Republicans to unseat Gottheimer: the moderate, well-funded congressman won re-election 55%-43% even as Kamala Harris was carrying the district just 50%-48%. With attention largely focused on two other North Jersey districts this cycle, the Democratic-held 9th and the Republican-held 7th, neither party is acting like Gottheimer’s re-election campaign will be especially competitive.

Kirrane is the first Republican willing to go up against those odds, and he said his message has begun resonating with 5th district voters.

“I think the fact that I’m not a career politician is actually a benefit, because I don’t have the past history and baggage that some of the other politicians may have,” he said. “I come with a fresh side of eyes.”

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