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The shadow docket : how the Supreme Court uses stealth rulings to amass power and undermine the republic / Stephen Vladeck.

By: Publisher: New York, NY : Basic Books, Hachette Book Group, 2023Edition: First editionDescription: xv, 334 pages ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781541602632
  • 1541602633
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 347.73/26 23/eng/20230310
LOC classification:
  • KF8748 .V53 2023
Contents:
The rise of certiorari : how the "least dangerous branch" came to control its agenda -- Substance in procedure : how the court decides without deciding -- The machinery of death : how capital punishment gave rise to the modern shadow docket -- The tenthjustice : how the Trump Administration blew up the shadow docket -- Covid and the court : how the court abused the shadow docket to expand religious liberty -- The Purcell "principle" : how the current court uses the shadow docket to help epublicans --"Read the opinion" : how the court's abuse of the shadow docket undermines its legitimacy -- Conclusion bringing the Supreme Court out of the shadows.
Summary: "At 11:34 PM on April 9, 2021, the Supreme Court issued an emergency ruling. California governor Gavin Newsom's bid to enact enhanced COVID restrictions was overturned in a sweeping redefinition of existing law. The shadowy circumstances of this ruling-anunsigned decision made in just a few pages, without a full briefing, and in the middle of the night-are not typical of the Supreme Court. But, as legal scholar and expert Stephen Vladeck shows, they're becoming far too common. The Supreme Court has always had the authority to issue emergency rulings-halting an execution or preventing a law from going into effect until lower courts could rule on its constitutionality-but until recently, it did so only in exceptional circumstances and issued only narrow rulings. Yet in the past decade, the court has expanded its use of the behind-the-scenes "shadow docket" dramatically, handing down major decisions that impact millions of Americans without oral argument or signed opinions, and often without any legal reasoning at all. While typical cases take years, shadow docket cases can take weeks. They typically fly under the public radar, too-until now. In The Shadow Docket, University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck offers a comprehensive analysis of the shadowdocket, tracing its emergence in the 1970s in the wake of major court decisions on the death penalty and its recent embrace by a conservative-leaning court that has expanded it to set policy on everything from election law to abortion to immigration. Yetwhile Republican appointees have been most enthusiastic in their use of the shadow docket, the docket itself is not partisan, and Vladeck makes the case that Americans of all political stripes have a stake in bringing the court's decision-making processesback into the light. Rigorous yet accessible, The Shadow Docket exposes a disturbing institutional crisis that threatens the foundations of our democracy, and calls for sweeping reform"-- Provided by publisher.
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Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Shelving location Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Books Books Eustis Memorial Library Adult Nonfiction 347.7326 VLA Available 650391002097303
Books Books Leesburg Public Library Nonfiction Nonfiction 347.7326 Vla Available 33099004459340
Total holds: 0

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The rise of certiorari : how the "least dangerous branch" came to control its agenda -- Substance in procedure : how the court decides without deciding -- The machinery of death : how capital punishment gave rise to the modern shadow docket -- The tenthjustice : how the Trump Administration blew up the shadow docket -- Covid and the court : how the court abused the shadow docket to expand religious liberty -- The Purcell "principle" : how the current court uses the shadow docket to help epublicans --"Read the opinion" : how the court's abuse of the shadow docket undermines its legitimacy -- Conclusion bringing the Supreme Court out of the shadows.

"At 11:34 PM on April 9, 2021, the Supreme Court issued an emergency ruling. California governor Gavin Newsom's bid to enact enhanced COVID restrictions was overturned in a sweeping redefinition of existing law. The shadowy circumstances of this ruling-anunsigned decision made in just a few pages, without a full briefing, and in the middle of the night-are not typical of the Supreme Court. But, as legal scholar and expert Stephen Vladeck shows, they're becoming far too common. The Supreme Court has always had the authority to issue emergency rulings-halting an execution or preventing a law from going into effect until lower courts could rule on its constitutionality-but until recently, it did so only in exceptional circumstances and issued only narrow rulings. Yet in the past decade, the court has expanded its use of the behind-the-scenes "shadow docket" dramatically, handing down major decisions that impact millions of Americans without oral argument or signed opinions, and often without any legal reasoning at all. While typical cases take years, shadow docket cases can take weeks. They typically fly under the public radar, too-until now. In The Shadow Docket, University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck offers a comprehensive analysis of the shadowdocket, tracing its emergence in the 1970s in the wake of major court decisions on the death penalty and its recent embrace by a conservative-leaning court that has expanded it to set policy on everything from election law to abortion to immigration. Yetwhile Republican appointees have been most enthusiastic in their use of the shadow docket, the docket itself is not partisan, and Vladeck makes the case that Americans of all political stripes have a stake in bringing the court's decision-making processesback into the light. Rigorous yet accessible, The Shadow Docket exposes a disturbing institutional crisis that threatens the foundations of our democracy, and calls for sweeping reform"-- Provided by publisher.

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