US Edition
Published • loading... • Updated
NYT Publishes Secret Supreme Court Memos on Shadow Docket's Origins
The memos show Chief Justice John Roberts and other conservatives pressed for a fast 5-4 stay to block the Obama-era climate rule.
- 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.
Insights by Ground AI
16 Articles
16 Articles
"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." #ELB
Jodi Kantor and Adam Liptak in the NYT: 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… Continue reading The post “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.” appea…
Coverage Details
Total News Sources16
Leaning Left7Leaning Right2Center3Last UpdatedBias Distribution58% Left
Bias Distribution
- 58% of the sources lean Left
58% Left
L 58%
C 25%
R 17%
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
