via
Twitter
In
the
days
of
old,
reading
judicial
opinions
was
a
(relatively)
easy
way
to
understand
how
and
why
the
Supreme
Court
justices
arrived
at
a
legal
conclusion
to
a
pressing
issue.
Now
you
have
to
hope
that
their
rationale
isn’t
black
boxed
behind
the
shadow
docket,
a
once
boring
way
of
dealing
with
procedural
matters
that
has
morphed
into
determining
huge
legal
questions
pertaining
to
abortion,
the
EPA,
the
list
goes
on.
Even
the
justices
have
complained
about
the
morphing
importance
the
shadow
docket
is
taking
on.
Most
recent
is
Justice
Kagan;
Reuters
has
coverage:
Justice
Elena
Kagan
said
the
U.S.
Supreme
Court
would
be
better
off
spending
less
time
hurrying
through
cases
on
its
emergency
docket.“It’s
a
very
hard
problem,”
Kagan
said
on
Monday
in
an
hour-long
interview
with
a
professor
at
New
York
University’s
law
school.
“I
don’t
think
we
do
our
best
work
in
this
way.”
There’s
no
denying
the
bit
about
shadow
docketing
not
being
their
best
work.
That
said,
when
their
work
includes
things
like
Clarence
Thomas
appreciating
how
skilled
you
have
to
be
to
mow
down
a
crowd
with
a
bump
stock
or
Justice
Kagan’s
Seussian
footnoting,
it
isn’t
like
there’s
much
competition.
US
Supreme
Court’s
Kagan
Says
Emergency
Docket
Does
Not
Lead
To
Court’s
Best
Work
[Reuters]
Earlier:
Is
This
How
Abortion
Goes
Out?
Not
With
A
Bang,
But
A
Whimper
The
Shadow
Docket
Has
Gotten
So
Bad,
Even
John
Roberts
Is
Pissed
About
It
Ketanji
Brown
Jackson
Rails
Against
Supreme
Court’s
Over
Use
Of
Shadow
Docket
Chris
Williams
became
a
social
media
manager
and
assistant
editor
for
Above
the
Law
in
June
2021.
Prior
to
joining
the
staff,
he
moonlighted
as
a
minor
Memelord™
in
the
Facebook
group Law
School
Memes
for
Edgy
T14s.
He
endured
Missouri
long
enough
to
graduate
from
Washington
University
in
St.
Louis
School
of
Law.
He
is
a
former
boatbuilder
who
cannot
swim, a
published
author
on
critical
race
theory,
philosophy,
and
humor,
and
has
a
love
for
cycling
that
occasionally
annoys
his
peers.
You
can
reach
him
by
email
at [email protected] and
by
tweet
at @WritesForRent.