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NYT Publishes Secret Supreme Court Memos on Shadow Docket's Origins
The memos show justices split over emergency relief and institutional legitimacy as the court acted before lower courts ruled.
- The New York Times obtained confidential 2016 memos revealing the Supreme Court's internal debate over President Barack Obama's Clean Power Plan, offering rare insight into the court's secretive shadow docket process.
- Chief Justice John Roberts urged blocking the environmental initiative, citing the 'major questions doctrine' and arguing the plan was 'the most expensive regulation ever imposed on the power sector.'
- Internal correspondence shows liberal Justice Elena Kagen was 'not buying' the urgency of the stay, while conservative Justice Samuel Alito warned that failure to stop the president threatened the court's 'institutional legitimacy.'
- By a 5-to-4 vote, the Supreme Court halted the program without explanation, a decision legal scholars view as the birth of the modern shadow docket characterized by secrecy.
- Confidential papers are typically withheld until after a judge's death, meaning the 'public might not learn what happened, and why, for decades,' yet these documents now reveal how justices deliberate behind closed doors.
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17 Articles
17 Articles
Coverage Details
Total News Sources17
Leaning Left7Leaning Right3Center3Last UpdatedBias Distribution54% Left
Bias Distribution
- 54% of the sources lean Left
54% Left
L 54%
C 23%
R 23%
Factuality
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