- Recent activity on the U.S. Supreme Court's "shadow docket" has caught the attention of lawmakers who want to know more about how the justices handle these under-the-radar cases.
- On Thursday, a House Judiciary subcommittee will hold a hearing on the so-called shadow docket, a name for the cases that don't go through the Supreme Court's normal process of public arguments and signed merits opinions.
- The shadow docket has drawn increasing scrutiny in the years since constitutional scholar William Baude coined the term in a 2015 law article, with a number of journalists, watchdog groups and now lawyers calling attention to the lack of transparency in these short orders and unsigned opinions.
- The latest shadow docket controversy came Thursday evening, when the Supreme Court denied Alabama's request to proceed with the execution of inmate Willie Smith without his pastor present in the execution chamber. Sifting through the order, court watchers soon noted that not all of the votes were accounted for.
Also of note, see the NYT's California's Shifting Relationship With the Supreme Court, where Dean Chemerinksy discusses the general issue of California v. SCOTUS.
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