The Supreme Court’s Shadow-Docket Secrets Have Been Spilled

The New York Times on Saturday published a series of Supreme Court internal memos that amount, in hindsight, to a major milestone in the decline of American democracy. The closely held memos show how the justices’ shadow docket—particularly their use of brief, unsigned decisions on cases before they’ve even reached the court—transformed from a simple administrative mechanism into a major roadblock for progressive governance.There are caveats, of course: It is impossible to know whether thes...