Inside the Shadow Docket
An interview with Prof. Stephen Vladeck
The term Shadow Docket, refers to the decisions and orders of the Supreme Court outside of the traditional cases with formal briefings, oral arguments, and reasoned, lengthy opinions. Over the last few years, the Court has increasingly used these decisions to address high-profile and politically-charged issues such as immigration, election disputes, pandemic restrictions, and abortion bans.
In this interview, Professor Stephen Vladeck (University of Texas Law School) breaks down this shift in power at the High Court and offers detailed analysis and a critique of the increased use of the Shadow Docket and what it might mean for the Court’s already-tarnished prestige.
Additional Resources
The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic – A book by Professor Stephen Vladeck (Basic Books 2023)
Listen on Podcast
About Prof. Stephen Vladeck
“What has changed in the last five or six years is how often the court is intervening in this context, how it's intervening, and the court is treating these orders at presidential, and intervening inconsistently. ”
Stephen I. Vladeck is a professor of law at the University of Texas School of Law and is a nationally recognized expert on the federal courts, constitutional law, national security law, and military justice. Professor Vladeck has argued over a dozen cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Texas Supreme Court, and various lower federal civilian and military courts; has testified before numerous congressional committees and Executive Branch agencies and commissions; has served as an expert witness both in U.S. state and federal courts and in foreign tribunals; and has received numerous awards for his influential and widely cited legal scholarship, his prolific popular writing, his teaching, and his service to the legal profession.
Vladeck is the co-host, together with Professor Bobby Chesney, of the “National Security Law Podcast.” He is CNN’s Supreme Court analyst and a co-author of Aspen Publishers’ leading national security law and counterterrorism law casebooks. He is editor and author of "One First," a popular weekly newsletter about the Supreme Court. Professor Vladeck is the author of the book: The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic (Basic Books, May 2023).
