Justice Elena Kagan said the U.S. Supreme Court would be better off spending less time hurrying through cases on its emergency docket.
More commonly known as the “shadow docket,” the emergency docket is where justices address issues - some controversial - that litigants want resolved quickly, sometimes after lower courts issue rulings that apply nationwide.
Justices have relied increasingly on this process to rule in a wide array of cases without the normal deliberative process, including public oral arguments and full written decisions.
Kagan, a justice since 2010 and part of the court’s three-member liberal wing, said the court issues decisions in only about 60 cases a year, fewer than half the norm in the 1980s when she clerked there, but spends “a ton more time” on the shadow docket.
This isn’t surprising, anytime we try to rush something we will risk error. I think Kagan’s cohort agrees, but the other six justices probably see this as a feature, not a flaw.