Jonathan H. Adler Discusses Shadow Dockets at Harvard Law’s Rappaport Forum

SRL Advisory Council Member and William & Mary Law Professor Jonathan H. Adler recently participated in a live panel discussion, “The Docket that Shall Not Be Named – The Supreme Court’s Emergency Orders,” hosted by Harvard Law School’s Rappaport Forum, that explored the increasing rise of the U.S. Supreme Court’s shadow docket orders.

Professor Adler describes the institutional dynamics that contribute to the Supreme Court’s use of the shadow docket:

The Court believes, across the board, that injunctions against the executive branch necessarily impose irreparable harm. And I think that is informed in part by the idea that the executive branch only has a particular amount of time to advance its priorities, and if litigants or others can run out the clock and prevent things from happening, then the executive branch doesn’t get to do what the executive branch should be allowed to do as a result of elections.

The Panel includes Professor Adler, Professor Kate Shaw at Penn Carey Law of the University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard Law Professor Richard Re, as moderator.

Watch the full conversation below: