merits docket

[mer-its dok-it]

noun

1. a list of the cases resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court in a recorded vote after full briefing and oral arguments, and with written opinions signed by individual justices.

Word History and Origins

Origin of merits docket¹

First recorded in 1885–90

Example Sentences

Dahlia Lithwick: Steve, you’re one of a handful of court watchers who treats what happens on the emergency docket as though it’s equally if not more important than what happens on the merits docket, the one we all get to play along with at home.

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It seems to me that what we saw at the end of the term was the 6–3 supermajority approach to the shadow docket merged with the 6–3 merits docket.

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The court’s brief order did not suspend the program in the meantime or add the case to the court’s merits docket.

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After all, to a greater extent than has been true in generations, the merits docket is providing plenty of fodder all by itself.

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But what happens on the merits docket is possible only because of the evolution of the shadow docket—especially the power the justices have claimed to decide not only which cases they’ll resolve, but which questions they’ll resolve within those cases.

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