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Kavanaugh Pushes New Label for Supreme Court Emergency Docket
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/kavanaugh-pushes-new-label-for-supreme-court-emergency-docketJustice Brett Kavanaugh is doing his best to rebrand the Supreme Court’s emergency docket — known colloquially as the “shadow docket” by another name.
“I think the term ‘interim docket’ best captures it,” Kavanaugh told attendees at the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit’s conference in Memphis on Thursday, after he was asked to “settle” the dispute over what to call the justices’ oft-criticized practice of issuing brief orders in pending cases without explanation.
Though the docket has also been called the “emergency docket,” for its handling of emergency requests for relief — or the “shadow docket” by critics who see it as opaque —Kavanaugh noted that not all of these requests the justices field are emergencies.
“It’s not real catchy, so I’m not sure it’ll bloom, but that’s the term” Kavanaugh said of his preferred label, which he’d also invoked in July at the Eighth Circuit’s conference in Kansas City.
In his remarks Thursday, Kavanaugh once again defended the justices’ handling of the emergency docket, which President Donald Trump has turned to repeatedly this year to advance his agenda in the face of lower court resistance.
“I think the term ‘interim docket’ best captures it,” Kavanaugh told attendees at the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit’s conference in Memphis on Thursday, after he was asked to “settle” the dispute over what to call the justices’ oft-criticized practice of issuing brief orders in pending cases without explanation.
Though the docket has also been called the “emergency docket,” for its handling of emergency requests for relief — or the “shadow docket” by critics who see it as opaque —Kavanaugh noted that not all of these requests the justices field are emergencies.
“It’s not real catchy, so I’m not sure it’ll bloom, but that’s the term” Kavanaugh said of his preferred label, which he’d also invoked in July at the Eighth Circuit’s conference in Kansas City.
In his remarks Thursday, Kavanaugh once again defended the justices’ handling of the emergency docket, which President Donald Trump has turned to repeatedly this year to advance his agenda in the face of lower court resistance.
Ah yes, because the problem worthy of public debate is what we *call* it when #SCOTUS decides major issues without full briefing, argument, or written opinions—not, you know, what the Court is actually *doing* in these cases.
— Steve Vladeck (@stevevladeck.bsky.social) 2025-09-04T20:55:50.177Z
news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...
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