Justice Kavanaugh Wants to Hear More Cases

Justice Kavanaugh was alone in noting his desire to accept certiorari in two cases the justices rejected.

There were no opinions released by the Supreme Court today, but there was an Order List. The Court granted petitions for certiorari in two related cases concerning the use of social media by government officials (discussed by Eugene below). It denied certiorari in several dozen more.

Although there were no opinions dissenting from the denials of certiorari, the Court's order list noted two cases in which Justice Kavanaugh noted that he voted to grant: Steward v. Gable and Suncor Energy (U.S.A.) Inc., v. Board of County Commissioners of Boulder County. The first was a petition filed by Oregon challenging a lower court's grant of a habeas petition. The second was one of several petitions filed by oil companies seeking to have state common law climate change suits removed to federal court. (I blogged on these later cases here, here, and here.)

The Supreme Court's docket has shrunk dramatically since the 1980s. Oral arguments may be longer, but the number of opinions is declining. Indeed, in the past few years the Court has issued fewer decisions in argued cases than at any time in the past 150 years. Perhaps Justice Kavanaugh's votes for certiorari indicate that at least one justice believes the justices could stand to hear and decide a few more cases.