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shadow docket

American  

[shad-oh dok-it] / ˈʃæd oʊ ˌdɒk ɪt /

noun

1. a list of the cases resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court by unsigned procedural orders issued without full briefing, oral arguments, or lengthy written opinions.

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Etymology

Origin of shadow docket

Coined by U.S. legal scholar and University of Chicago law professor William P. Baude (born 1950) in 2015

Example Sentences

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shadow docket

We identified more than 27,000 emergency applications during that period, including thousands of requests that are not commonly understood to be a part of the shadow docket.

From Salon ● Jul. 3, 2026

We defined a substantive application on the shadow docket as any filing where the full court was asked to intervene in the traditional appeals process, such as staying a lower court’s order.

From Salon ● Jul. 3, 2026

When those are removed, what’s left is known as the shadow docket — cases that seek to skip the usual order of things and ask for a quick ruling from the court’s justices.

From Salon ● Jul. 3, 2026

It’s a “three-ring circus”: the merits docket, the shadow docket, and the justices’ increasingly public intramural snipings and gripes.

From Slate ● May 30, 2026

As Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern explained, last week the high court issued a shadow docket decision essentially striking down its 2023 ruling in Allen v.

From Slate ● May 14, 2026