Justice Barrett’s Tone-Deaf Defense Of The Shadow Docket Comes As Federal Judges Revolt Against Supreme Court’s “Mystical” Orders
When 47 out of 65 federal judges tell The New York Times that the Supreme Court is mishandling its emergency docket and creating a “judicial crisis,” you might think a Supreme Court Jus…
Breaking: many district court judges unhappy SCOTUS expects them to read its mind.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/us/politics/judicial-crisis-supreme-court-trump.html
But seriously, treating unexplained emergency orders *as precedential* is understandably confusing. SCOTUS is acting like Humphrey's is dead, but district courts still are bound by it since they haven't actually overturned it on the merits docket.
“The main complaint voiced by a majority of the judges was not where the Supreme Court was coming down, but how it was doing so. By presenting its emergency orders in just a few sentences, with little or no reasoning, judges said the Supreme Court was leaving them without a clear path to assess what the justices were thinking.”
Also, #SCOTUS risks appearing secretive or arbitrary with too many emergency order rulings.
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#USA #US #law #trump #ShadowDocket
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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/us/politics/judicial-crisis-supreme-court-trump.html
“The emergency docket is known to its critics as the shadow docket, and its rise as a flashpoint for tensions in the judiciary coincides with the Supreme Court's increasing use of it in ways that have benefited #Trump ‘s agenda.
~district court judges have (repeatedly) imposed blocks on Trump’s expansive policies — “only to have the Supreme Court remove them with an emergency order.”
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~ “It is ‘of surpassing historic significance" that so many sitting judges have chosen to weigh in publicly about the Supreme Court’”
Code of conduct requires federal judges to promote “public confidence in the integrity & impartiality of the judiciary." They seldom comment on public controversies & almost never share their views of Supreme Court jurisprudence outside of the carefully chosen words of their written opinions.
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~ “The striking & highly unusual critique of the nation's highest court from lower court judges reveals the degree to which litigation over Trump’s agenda has created strains in the federal judicial system.
~ “65 judges responded to a Times questionnaire sent to hundreds of federal judges across the country. Of those, 47 said the Supreme Court had been mishandling its emergency docket since #Trump returned to office.”
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“Dozens of sitting judges shared with
The Times their concerns about risks to the courts' legitimacy as the Supreme Court releases opaque orders about Trump administration policies.”
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Federal Judges, Warning of 'Judicial Crisis,' Fault Supreme Court's Emergency Orders~
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/us/politics/judicial-crisis-supreme-court-trump.html
That emergency docket [aka #ShadowDocket], a growing part of #SCOTUS’ work in recent years, has taken on greater importance amid the flood of litigation challenging #Trump’s efforts to *expand* [consolidate] #ExecutivePower.
While the orders are technically temporary, they have had broad practical effects, allowing the admin to #deport tens of thousands of people, discharge #transgender #military service members, fire thousands of #FederalWorkers & slash federal #funding.
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