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Civics 101

The Supreme Court rulings that aren't rulings

Civics 101

NHPR

Education, History, Supreme Court, American History, Elections, Democracy, Society & Culture, Government, Civics, Politics, Social Studies

4.62.4K Ratings

🗓️ 29 July 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

"The shadow docket," refers to orders from the Supreme Court that are (often) unsigned, inscrutable, and handed down in the middle of the night. Professor Stephen Vladeck takes us through this increasingly common phenomenon.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello, everyone. I'm reading these words on July 25, 2025. This morning, the Supreme Court of the United

0:07.4

States grants it its 25th application for emergency relief this term. This one was a stay of the

0:15.6

mandate in the North Dakota Voting Rights Act case. Now, this is the record for grants of emergency relief in one Supreme

0:23.5

Court term, and the court's term ends at the beginning of October, so that record will not just be

0:29.2

beaten, but smashed. And just to give you an example of these recent Supreme Court rulings that are

0:35.1

not rulings, on Wednesday of this week, the court approved

0:38.9

the action of President Donald Trump firing members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission with no

0:44.6

cause, no cause whatsoever, though it is worth pointing out all the fired employees are Democrats.

0:50.5

In Justice Elena Kagan's dissent of this not decision, she wrote the court, quote, once again, uses its emergency docket to destroy the independence of an independent agency as established by Congress.

1:05.0

Now, the reason I know about this record of emergency relief applications is because I follow the country's foremost expert on them

1:12.9

on blue sky, Steve Vladic. We talked with him last year to learn about what is called the shadow docket.

1:20.9

Actions by the Supreme Court that bear very little resemblance to the tried and true arguments

1:26.0

and opinions for which they are best known.

1:28.6

So in light of this record and all of these applications,

1:31.9

we thought it would be a good idea to revisit the shadow docket.

1:36.6

All right, here we go.

1:41.8

Anna, the more shows we do, the more it feels that the wheels of government are powerful, but slow.

1:53.2

So if you want to get something done, the reason perhaps you decided to get involved in politics in the first place, it might be easier to just use a shortcut.

2:02.9

You don't want to write a bill? Cut and paste from another one.

2:05.6

Because I didn't realize just how many copycat bills there are out there right now.

2:09.7

You don't want to go through the rigmarole of amendments in a House vote. Do it under suspension

2:13.8

of the rules. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 2663.

...

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