Joyce Alene: 1/The NYT is releasing internal SCOTUS documents re: 2016 --- The Shadow Papers [View all]

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The Inside Story of Five Days That Remade the Supreme Court

Secret memos obtained by The New York Times illuminate the origins of the court’s now-routine “shadow docket” rulings on presidential power.
By Jodi Kantor and Adam Liptak

Jodi Kantor and Adam Liptak’s work sheds light on the Supreme Court. They welcome tips at nytimes.com/tips.

April 18, 2026
Just after 6 p.m. on a February evening in 2016, the Supreme Court issued a cryptic, one paragraph ruling that sent both climate policy and the court itself spinning in new directions.

For two centuries, the court had generally handled major cases at a stately pace that encouraged care and deliberation, relying on written briefs, oral arguments and in-person discussions. The justices composed detailed opinions that explained their thinking to the public and rendered judgment only after other courts had weighed in.

But this time, the justices were sprinting to block a major presidential initiative. By a 5-to-4 vote along partisan lines, the order halted President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, his signature environmental policy. They acted before any other court had addressed the plan’s lawfulness. The decision consisted of only legal boilerplate, without a word of reasoning.

At the time, the ruling seemed like a curious one-off. But that single paragraph turned out to be a sharp and lasting break. That night marks the birth, many legal experts believe, of the court’s modern “shadow docket,” the secretive track that the Supreme Court has since used to make many major decisions, including granting President Trump more than 20 key victories on issues from immigration to agency power.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/us/politics/supreme-court-shadow-docket.html?unlocked_article_code=1.b1A.laJB.4SzT3P7L6E52&smid=nytcore-ios-share

Overwhelming.