Trump wins emergency court orders

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court allowed Trump to resume deporting people to third countries other than their own, temporarily lifting a lower court's block on the policy.

Court permits voter database use

Days earlier, the Supreme Court permitted the Trump Administration to use a controversial Department of Homeland Security database in verifying voter eligibility ahead of the November midterms.

Liberal justices dissent publicly

Both orders were unsigned with no vote count, but the Court's three liberal Justices publicly dissented from the decisions allowing Trump's policies to proceed.

Pattern of emergency victories

The rulings are the latest in a string of mostly favourable decisions the Trump Administration has received from the Supreme Court in response to emergency relief requests.

Trump's unprecedented request rate

Trump submitted forty-one applications to the shadow docket in his first term and has already made the same number of requests in his second term, far more than any other recent president.

What is the shadow docket?

The Supreme Court's shadow docket is the process by which the Court receives and responds to requests for expedited review in ongoing cases, producing decisions without vote counts or written rationale.

Court changed its standards

Legal experts say the Supreme Court has been far more permissive towards Trump's emergency requests than in the past, allowing him to move forward his agenda with less legal constraint than his predecessors.

“The Supreme Court has changed the rules for when the executive branch can obtain this kind of emergency relief in ways that it is completely different from what they've done in the past.”

Court ignores lower court findings

The Supreme Court can discard evidence or analysis provided in lower court rulings because it is not required to provide the same legal reasoning, ignoring factual findings in virtually every shadow docket case.

Trump's winning record

Since Trump returned to office last January, the Supreme Court has issued thirty-two decisions on shadow docket rulings concerning his Administration. Twenty-four have been decided in favour of the Administration.

Foreign aid and other victories

Last month, the Supreme Court allowed Trump to temporarily withhold four billion dollars in foreign aid, ruling that the asserted harms to the Executive's conduct of foreign affairs appear to outweigh potential harm to recipient groups.

“the asserted harms to the Executive's conduct of foreign affairs appear to outweigh the potential harm”

Justice Jackson warns of danger

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson expressed worry that the Supreme Court's shadow docket rulings are having a disruptive and potentially corrosive effect on the American legal system.

“If we're not careful, the emergency docket can and will become an end-run around the standard review process.”

Conservative justice questions trend

Even conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch has indicated concerns, saying we have moved so much to the federal level and executive branch through emergency legislation that it is not a recipe for a healthy democracy.

“The rise of the emergency. The perpetual emergency. Everything is an emergency.”

Lower courts speak out

Judge James Wynn of the fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals argued that a system of unexplained orders silently controlling future cases is one of opacity, not uniformity, undermining judicial authority.

“A system in which unexplained orders silently control future cases is not one of uniformity, but of opacity.”

Experts warn of dangerous precedent

Legal scholars say the Supreme Court is ignoring evidence from lower courts and failing to justify its rulings, setting an extremely dangerous precedent for repeated defiance of the rule of law.

“I don't think certainly in the 20th century and 21st century we've seen a court that has been willing to sanction just repeated defiance of the rule of law.”