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Introducing the Interim Relief Docket Stat Pack – SCOTUSblog

INTERIM DOCKET

Introducing the Interim Relief Docket Stat Pack

By Taraleigh Davis, Jan 28, 2026

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For years, scholars and commentators have tracked the Supreme Court’s merits docket through detailed statistical analyses. SCOTUSblog’s Stat Pack has become an essential resource for understanding how the justices decide cases after full briefing and oral argument. But the court’s “other” docket, the interim relief docket – also known as the emergency or shadow docket – has received far less systematic attention.

Until now.

I’m proud to introduce the first Interim Relief Docket Stat Pack, a statistical portrait of the Supreme Court’s applications for the 2024-25 term (that is, from October 7, 2024, through October 5, 2025).

What’s included

I have been collecting data on applications for relief (beginning with the court’s 2000-01 term) for several years. Based on this data, the current Stat Pack covers 136 applications filed during the 2024-25 term. These break down into three categories: 49 capital cases (requests to stay or vacate executions), 32 refiled applications (cases denied in chambers and referred to the full court), and 55 of what I call substantive applications. Of the 55 substantive applications, six were deferred for oral argument, leaving 49 for statistical analysis. That final category includes challenges to lower court injunctions, often from the administration; administrative enforcement disputes; First Amendment conflicts; and federalism questions.

The Interim Relief Docket Stat Pack tracks how the justices voted on the interim docket and in what coalitions, the timing of such decisions, issue areas, who filed what, and much more – thus providing unprecedented insight into this docket. It also includes a Term Index, which is a complete case-by-case breakdown of these applications, including docket numbers, case names, outcomes, days to decision, and noted dissents.

Some key findings

During the 2024-25 term, the court granted relief in 53% of substantive applications, more than double the 23% grant rate from the previous term. At the same time, the justices publicly disagreed in 76% of substantive cases, far exceeding the pre-2014 average of 13.5%.

Perhaps predictably, the Trump administration dominated much of the docket, filing 27 of 55 substantive applications and obtaining relief in a striking 90% of these. Yet only 9% of the Trump cases were decided unanimously – with justices typically publicly disagreeing along ideological lines.

Additionally, the interim docket has (at least partly) emerged from the shadows: written opinions accompanied 31% of substantive applications, continuing the dramatic increase from near-zero during 2015-17 and 23% in 2023.

For many more findings, please check out the Stat Pack itself, which can be downloaded below.

As this docket continues to generate increased attention and influence, this Stat Pack should serve as an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to understand the nature of the current court.

Posted in Court Analysis, Emergency appeals and applications, Featured

Recommended Citation: Taraleigh Davis, Introducing the Interim Relief Docket Stat Pack, SCOTUSblog (Jan. 28, 2026, 9:30 AM), https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/01/introducing-the-interim-relief-docket-stat-pack/

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Continue/Read Original Article Here: Introducing the Interim Relief Docket Stat Pack – SCOTUSblog

Retired judges warn that the rule of law is unraveling – AI image by WP.

Retired judges warn that the rule of law is unraveling – The Washington Post

In interviews, former state and federal judges warn that democracy’s guardrails may already be weakened as the rule of law begins to falter.

November 28, 2025 at 5:00 a.m. EST, Today at 5:00 a.m. EST, 11 min

By Brianna Tucker

When the White House blasted a federal judge as “partisan” for dismissing the criminal cases against former FBI director James B. Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James this week, it was an attack that has become common in President Donald Trump’s second term.

For many retired federal and state supreme court judges, it was another example of the president’s assault on the judiciary and further erosion of the rule of law.

In a dozen interviews with The Washington Post, former judges and one soon-to-be-retired judge described a judiciary under incredible strain and its integrity threatened by partisan attacks, antagonistic rhetoric from public officials and ambiguous decisions handed down by the nation’s highest court.

Many judges said the politicization of judges, the Supreme Court’s expanding use of emergency dockets and sustained criticism from the Trump administration have pushed the courts and democracyto a fragile tipping point — one where cooperation with rulings and adherence to the rule of law can no longer be assumed.

Follow Trump’s second term

“There’s not a person in our country that, whether they think about it or not, does not depend upon the ability of these fundamental rights and liberties to be protected in an action in court if there is someone who violates that,” said Paul Grimm, a retired judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

The consequences, judges warn, are already becoming visible in who’s willing to serve as a jurist, global shifts in judicial norms and the types of justice the U.S. system can still deliver.

Read more: Retired judges warn that the rule of law is unraveling – AI image by WP.

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Retired judges warn that the rule of law is unraveling – The Washington Post

#ambiguousDecisions #democracy #emergencyDocket #endangered #federalJudges #judicialNorms #partisanAttacks #politicizationOfJudges #ruleOfLaw #scotus #strainingCourts #uSDistrictCourts #uSJusticeSystem #unitedStates

Justice Barrett’s Tone-Deaf Defense Of The Shadow Docket Comes As Federal Judges Revolt Against Supreme Court’s “Mystical” Orders

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/14/justice-barretts-tone-deaf-defense-of-the-shadow-docket-comes-as-federal-judges-revolt-against-supreme-courts-mystical-orders/

#shadowdocket #emergencydocket #enabling. There is no further reason to refer 2 him as Chief Justice of anything - #JohnRoberts Acting on his Own issued an interim “administrative stay” of a federal judge’s ruling ordering #Trump administration to pay out $4 billion in #foreign #aid that had been #appropriated by #Congress. The ruling ordered the challengers to file their #brief by Friday. claw back #pocket #rescission #SCOTUS #SurpremeCourt #rubberstamp #fascism #democracy #separationofpowers