What’s Up With SCOTUS? The Shadow Docket, Accountability, And Justice

What’s up at the U.S. Supreme Court, which has rocked the legal world with a conservative majority rolling back rights the rights of minorities, including 2023 rulings against affirmative action for college admissions and affirming the rights of business owners to deny service to LGBTQ patrons based on religious beliefs. 

Guest Stephen Vladeck is a professor of law, nationally recognized expert on constitutional law and the Supreme Court, and the author of the book “The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic.” 

The Supreme Court has been exposed in recent years as an institution unbound by checks and balances and appears unaccountable to anyone. The Court regularly shapes the American system of justice through a “shadow docket,” decisions and rules made apart from headline cases. 

Are we witnessing a crisis in the judicial branch? Is this a Court that can do what it wants when it wants? What happens to ethics, accountability, improprieties? 

Plus, tips about discovery and the potential pitfalls of third-party collaboration apps (such as Slack and Teams). Hear what rules apply, and which ones don’t.