My name is Marjorie and I'm from Oregon. My concern is if they're able to render an opinion

without having a reason why and sharing that with the public, and how do we know that

they're applying the law and not functioning simply from their opinion of morality. So I do

think that having a shadowdocket and not having to supply an opinion does decrease my faith

in the Supreme Court. The shadowdocket is the Supreme Court's emergency decisions. They're

usually procedural and come with little explanation. But they're scrolling alarm that it's being used

more often to make major rulings in private with wide-reaching consequences. But others say it's

a means to keep lower court judges in line, especially when it comes to national injunctions.

A national injunction is when a single judge blocks a government policy from being enforced nationwide.

We recently saw this in action. A federal judge in Florida upended national public health policy

when she struck down the CDC's federal mask mandate for airplanes and other transportation. After

the break, we'll discuss how one judge can have such a large impact while also getting to what the

overall lack of transparency and Americans waning trust in the court means for our democracy.

I'm Jen White. You're listening to the 1A podcast where we get to the heart of the story. This

conversation is part of our Remaking America project. Over the next two years, we'll be exploring

Americans trust in our democracy and the institution's critical to its survival. And remember to

join future conversations, have your questions answered on future topics, or just to let us know what

you think, tweet us at 1A.

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