The Shadow Docket (Zoom Program)

A Discussion for Judges with Professor Stephen I. Vladeck

Moderated By Supreme Judicial Court Justice Scott L. Kafker

*This is a Zoom program*

From the Publisher: 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.

Stephen I. Vladeck is a professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center, and is a nationally recognized expert on the federal courts, constitutional law, national security law, and military justice. Vladeck joined the GULC faculty in July 2024 after spending the first 19 years of his academic career at the University of Miami School of Law, American University Washington College of Law, and, most recently, the University of Texas School of Law. He has argued before the Supreme Court and has been CNN’s Supreme Court Analyst since 2013. For more information, please visit: https://www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/stephen-i-vladeck/

A complimentary copies of The Shadow Docket are no longer available.