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“Over the last few years, the Supreme Court has dramatically altered the way it decides most cases—without acknowledging or justifying this radical shift.
“More and more often, the justices forego the usual appeals procedure in favor of rushed decision-making behind closed doors in what’s known as ‘the shadow docket.’
“They issue late-night opinions on the merits of a case without hearing arguments or receiving full briefing, and often refuse to reveal who authored the opinion, or even how each justice voted.
“The public is then left to guess why or how the law has changed and what reasoning the court has embraced.
“These emergency orders are supposed to be a rare exception; today, however, the court regularly uses them to make law in hugely controversial cases, including disputes over the border wall, COVID restrictions, and executions.
“On Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing to decide what, if anything, Congress can do to address a problem that’s spiraling out of control.”
“The House’s interest in the shadow docket is an encouraging sign that at least some members of Congress want to exercise their own constitutional powers to help fix the Supreme Court.
“It’s easy to forget that the democratic branches of government have real power over the federal judiciary.
“Congress can force SCOTUS to hear certain cases and prevent it from hearing others; it created the lower courts and gave them authority to decide a wide array of controversies, a privilege it can also strip away.”
