Docket

Written By Jonathan Milner

Docket: The list of potential cases that reach the Supreme Court. You can search the SCOTUS docket right here right now. The Supreme Court docket has been much smaller under the conservative Roberts Court than it was under the activist Warren Court.

Example

 
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Questions

  1. What is the Supreme Court docket?

  2. Who determines what gets on the SCOTUS docket?

  3. About how many cases are on the SCOTUS docket to be heard each year?

  4. Choose from the following: Pocket, Locket, Lock it, Unlock it, Roquette, Socket, Rocket, Rockette, Sock it, Hock it, Mock it, Knock it, Wockit, Rock-it! Which is the worst rhyming word with docket?

  5. Why would liberal/activists tend to want to hear more cases than conservative justices?

  6. the shadow docket is where the Court rules on procedural matters, such as scheduling and issuing injunctions. But its role is changing, and the full story is more complex. Supreme Court cases take one of two tracks: merits docket or shadow docket. Each term the Court decides some 60 to 70 cases on the merits docket. Before rendering a ruling in each one, the Court considers numerous briefs and holds oral argument. It then issues a decision with a lengthy opinion explaining its reasoning, often with concurrences and dissents. The process supports both informed decision-making and transparency. Almost every Supreme Court case you can name — Brown v. Board of Education, Roe v. Wade, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission — was decided on the merits docket. Most orders from the shadow docket, such as due dates for briefs, have little importance to anyone beyond the litigating parties. However, other shadow docket matters, such as requests to halt a lower court’s orders, can have high stakes. The Court might, for example, reinstate a law after a lower court had stopped its implementation. Cases on the shadow docket, in contrast to those on the merits docket, typically do not receive extensive briefing or a hearing. The decisions are accompanied by little to no explanation and often lack clarity on which justices are in the majority or minority. They are sometimes released in the middle of the night, creating a sense of palace intrigue. How is the shadow docket different from the docket we normally hear about?

  7. Use docket in a sentence that will make your family proud and demonstrates that you actually know what it means.

  8. Find an image or emoji that does justice to the sublime beauty of docket:

Remember!

Now, let’s commit this term to our long-term memory. On a scrap piece of paper, take 10 or 20 seconds to draw docket. Draw with symbols or stick figures if you wish. Nothing fancy. Don’t expect a masterpiece. No one else will see this but you. Look at your drawing. That’s all - now it’s downloaded into your memory. Destroy the piece of paper in a most delightful way.

Further Review

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Jonathan Milner

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