The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
Welcome to the "Interim Docket"
Justice Kavanaugh on what to call the "shadow docket" now that it is no longer in the shadows.
Speaking to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit's Judicial Conference, Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggests that the "interim docket" is a better label for the Supreme Court's docket of requests for interim orders and emergency relief than the "shadow docket."
From a Bloomberg report:
"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.
The "shadow docket" label was first suggested by Will Baude because the Court's non-merits orders about pending cases, often in response to petitions for emergency or extraordinary relief, did not receive much attention. Such orders, and their effects, were in the shadows, and Baude thought they needed more attention.
The Supreme Court's handling of requests for interim and other relief no longer occurs within the shadows. To the contrary, such orders receive extensive coverage and commentary. Thus the "shadow docket" is no longer apt, and the "interim docket" (or, perhaps, the "interim orders docket") definitely makes more sense.
