Glossary
Shadow docket
Definition
Shadow docket is a nickname for the Supreme Court's emergency docket: fast, temporary orders on urgent requests, made outside the usual schedule of briefs and arguments.
Why it matters
These orders can let a law or policy take effect, or keep it blocked, for months or years while the case goes on in the lower courts.
In practice
Most requests are decided on written filings alone, and many orders give no reasons and do not say how each justice voted.
Separate the temporary order from the final ruling: the case usually goes on in the lower courts and can come back to the Court later.
Common confusion
Shadow docket, emergency docket, and interim docket mean the same thing, and the orders are public. Law professor William Baude coined “shadow docket” in 2015; “emergency docket” is the neutral term; justices now call it the “interim docket.”