University of Chicago law professor Will Baude drafted an article a few years ago called “Paying Attention to the Orders List,” on the Supreme Court’s expedited rulings not subject to full briefing, such as stays of execution, emergency injunctions and reversals of lower courts. One reader suggested a catchier title: “The Supreme Court’s Shadow Docket.”
The article was published in 2015, and “shadow docket” took off. Though Mr. Baude identifies as an originalist, the term has been exploited by the Court’s liberal critics. This week the “shadow docket” was the subject of a Democratic-led Senate hearing lambasting the …
