Stephen Vladeck Sounds Alarm on Supreme Court's Abuse of 'The Shadow Docket'

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KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 22 May 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

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Summary

The U.S. Supreme Court is known for its public docket of consequential cases, with scheduled oral arguments and lengthy decisions often released in the month of June. But the Court’s conservative majority has been making more use of the so-called “shadow docket” for controversial cases, issuing perfunctory unsigned orders with little to no legal analysis. University of Texas law professor Stephen Vladeck argues it’s urgent that Supreme Court curtail its growing use of the shadow docket, and he joins us to explain why. His new book is “The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic.” Guests: Stephen Vladeck, professor, University of Texas School of Law; author, "The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic"; co-host, the National Security Law podcast; Supreme Court analyst, CNN Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Support for KQWED Podcasts comes from Landmark College, holding their annual summer
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0:30.1	From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Scott Schaefer in Formina Kim.
0:51.2	The U.S. Supreme Court is best known for its public docket of cases, with oral
0:55.8	arguments and long-written decisions and dissents, often released in the month of June. But
1:01.6	the conservative block of justices has been making more use of what's called the shadow docket,
1:07.0	decisions made out of public view, which are short, unsigned, and with very little explanation.
1:13.2	University of Texas law professor Stephen Vladick argues it's urgent that the Supreme Court curtail the growing use of this process.
1:20.8	He joins us to discuss his new book titled The Shadow Docket.
1:24.5	That's next after this news.
1:38.3	This is Forum. I'm Scott Schaefer and today for Mina Kim. We're coming up on June when the U.S. Supreme Court releases most of its so-called blockbuster decisions on cases with great public
1:44.0	interest and impact like the Dobbs, ending the constitutional right to an abortion.
1:48.9	But there is another process where decisions are rendered sometimes literally in the middle of the night on a wide range of topics, including asylum, COVID restrictions, abortions, and more, decisions that are not argued in public
2:02.4	with very short written orders that are unsigned. Well, this arcane process is being used more
2:08.9	by the conservative block on the court. And University of Texas law professor Stephen
2:13.5	Vladick says it further undermines public faith in the high court. And he writes about it in his new book titled The Shadow Docket,
	...

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