SCOTUS Watch: Summer Recess

The shitty trans athletes opinion shows the importance of voluntary trans protections, including those in New York.

The summer recess begins. The justices will have to address some things that pop up. They also have scheduled stuff:

For your planning purposes, summer order lists are scheduled to be issued on Monday, July 20; Monday, August 17; and Friday, September 4, 2026. Summer order lists usually consist of actions taken by the Court on motions in pending cases, petitions for rehearing, and other miscellaneous matters. Emergency orders, such as in applications for stays, will continue to be released as required.

Fix the Court suggests justices should circuit ride. I think it would be a decent idea if they spent more time in the lower courts. One idea: have each circuit justice preside over en banc hearings. 

The justices (minus two) might not be great at being district court judges. But I'm open to some thoughts.

We can spend the summer thinking about the Supreme Court. People think "court reform" means more justices. Let's think further. It's more than that. 

ETA: A pending case on the shadow docket involved a stay for reporter Catherine Herridge, who faced a daily $800 fine for refusing to name her sources in a Privacy Act lawsuit. 

Chris Geidner has the details. The facts go back at least to 2017, but now she has superlawyer Paul Clement on her side. No dice. Only Kavanaugh, without comment, would have granted the stay. 

(The lower panel had judges from the Carter, Biden, and Trump administrations, nomination-wise.) 

The final decision was handed down Thursday. It shows that we still will have some miscellaneous stuff popping up during the summer recess. 

Once upon a time, the Supreme Court was officially out of session. If it wanted to hear something as a group, they had to make a special effort. Individual justices handled things in the meanwhile.  

That is no longer the case. The individual justices still handle circuit matters. Nonetheless, the Court as a whole is still in session.