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SCOTUS's shadow persona

SCOTUS's shadow persona

The Supreme Court isn't bothering to explain itself anymore, which says a lot about where the rule of law is headed.

Charles Davis
September 26, 2025

The news, in brief …

Hegseth demands top military brass assemble in DC
Top military officials said they were alarmed after the defense secretary demanded an all-hands meeting. Read more.
Without evidence, MAGA blames Dems after Dallas ICE shooting
Friends of the alleged shooter told one journalist that they do not believe he was motivated by opposition to ICE. Read more.
Trump nominee deletes post calling for political violence
State Department nominee Jeremy Carl had called for the head of a teacher's union to be executed, CNN reported. Read more.
Republicans keep pushing unconstitutional flag-burning ban
Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Pa., is floating the idea of imprisoning "radical left" flag burners. Read more.

Make me smarter …

Ready to invade: Donald Trump shifts his focus back to Chicago

At Charlie Kirk's memorial, he vowed to "save" the Windy City. Read more.

Enabling Trump from the shadows

Explaining yourself is hard. Sometimes you just want to do the thing — have that ice cream; have another drink — without having to justify it.

In the case of the Supreme Court’s six right-wing justices, that “thing” is enabling President Donald Trump to rule the United States of America as a de facto king. It means overturning long-held precedents and ignoring the explicit direction of Congress in the pursuit of letting one 79-year-old man run the government like a failing business.

Already granted criminal immunity by the nation’s highest court, Trump, since retaking office, has also been granted the power to summarily fire members of independent agencies, like Democrats on the Federal Trade Commission, and to unilaterally withhold funding for scientific research. He can even take one person, born in one country, and deport them to another country where they have never once been. These new, unchecked powers have not been granted explicitly, mind you — not yet — but in the form of rulings-that-aren’t-technically-rulings from the so-called “shadow docket.”

SCOTUS just signaled how its next term will go — and Trump is "ecstatic"

The conservative majority once again uses the shadow docket to side with POTUS

www.salon.com/2025/09/25/scotus-just-signaled-how-its-next-term-will-go-and-trump-is-ecstatic

As the Brennan Center explains, this docket “is where the court rules on procedural matters, such as scheduling and issuing injunctions.” That, at least, is how it used to be. Now, though, the court’s 6-3 conservative majority is using it as a way to fast-track rulings in Trump’s favor, letting him run roughshod over the law, as it was previously understood, without requiring them to show their work explaining why that should be.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court effectively legalized racial profiling country-wide, enabling ICE agents to stop and question people based on the color of their skin and the language they speak. But, because it was done via the shadow docket, the ACLU explained, “there was no full hearing” and “there was no majority opinion.”

“At least when the court went off base in the past, it left a record so posterity could see how it went wrong,” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in a dissent earlier this year. Now “it” just “is.” As Jackson continued, tearing into her lazier colleagues: “We are just as wrong now as we have been in the past, with similarly devastating consequences. It just seems we are less willing to face it.”

All these arcane victories are also a hint of what’s to come, when the Supreme Court soon takes up cases — and issues proper rulings — on issues ranging from voting rights to gay-conversion therapy. Whether it explains itself or not, this court seems to have already decided that the law is whatever Donald Trump and his allies need it to be.

Supreme Court bends again to Trump's will

Shadow docket ruling on "third country" deportations further erodes our democracy

www.salon.com/2025/06/25/supreme-court-bends-again-to-trumps-will

Why do you think the Supreme Court is leaning on the “shadow docket”? And how do these decisions affect the legitimacy of its rulings? Sound off in the comments.