shadow docket (emergency docket)

The shadow docket, also called the emergency docket, refers to the Supreme Court’s practice of resolving matters through expedited orders rather than the full process of briefing, oral argument, and signed opinions that characterizes its merits docket. These orders, which include rulings on emergency applications for stays and injunctions, are often issued quickly, without full explanation, and sometimes without recorded votes. In other words, this is a method the Supreme Court uses to make decisions without hearing the merits of a case and without needing to publicly disclose their individual votes. The term gained prominence as the Court increasingly used such orders to decide consequential disputes. This is how the court made its May 2025 order permitting Donald Trump to remove members of the MSPB and NLRB pending further litigation.