The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic...

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Stephen Vladeck

The Shadow Docket

How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic

Stephen Vladeck

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English

Basic Books
16 May 2023

Central government; Law; Courts & procedure; Judicial powers

An instant New York Times bestseller: An acclaimed legal scholar's ""important"" (New York Times) and ""fascinating"" (Economist) exposé of how the Supreme Court uses unsigned and unexplained orders to change the law behind closed doors.

The Supreme Court has always had the authority to issue emergency rulings in exceptional circumstances. But since 2017, the Court has dramatically expanded its use of the behind-the-scenes ""shadow docket,"" regularly making decisions that affect millions of Americans without public hearings and without explanation, through cryptic late-night rulings that leave lawyers--and citizens--scrambling.

The Court's conservative majority has used the shadow docket to green-light restrictive voting laws and bans on abortion, and to curtail immigration and COVID vaccine mandates. But Americans of all political stripes should be worried about what the shadow docket portends for the rule of law, argues Supreme Court expert Stephen Vladeck. In this rigorous yet accessible book, he issues an urgent call to bring the Court back into the light.

By: Stephen Vladeck
Imprint: Basic Books
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 236mm, Width: 157mm, Spine: 36mm
Weight: 544g
ISBN: 9781541602632
ISBN 10: 1541602633
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 16 May 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Stephen Vladeck holds the Charles Alan Wright Chair in Federal Courts at the University of Texas School of Law. His work has been published in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Slate. He has argued before the Supreme Court and has been CNN's Supreme Court Analyst since 2013. Vladeck lives in Austin, Texas.

Reviews for The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic

In The Shadow Docket, Steve Vladeck tells an urgent story about an arcane aspect of American law that has momentous implications for a host of pressing political issues--and for the institutional legitimacy of the Supreme Court itself. In elegant, accessible prose, Vladeck exposes the degree to which significant battles, from abortion to immigration, are being adjudicated behind closed doors, in unseen, unsigned, unexplained decisions. This is a powerful work of argument and explication, and a call for a return to transparency and accountability in the decision making of our highest court. --Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Empire of Pain