When an administration lacks both competence and integrity, explanations often become admissions.
Legal experts have been concerned throughout the second Trump administration that the president and his DOJ are using the Supreme Court’s shadow docket, which is designed to be an emergency appeals process where rulings don’t come with accountability or opinions, as a way around the court system, where the Trump administration frequently loses.
Blanche was asked about the shadow docket on Fox News Sunday, and what began as a denial took a turn.
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The Attorney General said:
That’s just completely false. Okay, that’s not what the emergency docket has done. We don’t want to use the emergency docket. Remember, these are cases where we know as the Department of Justice and the administration that we are right, and yet we have a district court judge or even sometimes of the appellate courts that-they know that we’re right, too, and they say, “No, we’re gonna stop you.”
And so in those cases we go to the Supreme Court. By the way, we’ve won 80% of the time. 28 times we’ve won on the emergency docket.
Blanche was saying that the Trump administration doesn’t want to use the process where they win almost all of the time, but they have to, because the lower courts agree with the administration but rule against them.
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This doesn’t make sense, but the Attorney General wasn’t done.
Blanche continued:
It’s us going to the Supreme Court and saying, “Hey, this is happening at the courts below. We’re still going to appeal, so we’re still gonna have full argument. But in the meantime, justices, look at what this is, this has done for our nation. Look at what this has done in defiance of the Constitution.”
And yes, 28 times, 80% of the time the Supreme Court very much agrees with us. So that is not the opposite of true of what those critics are saying. This is allowing the president and this administration to do what we’re lawfully allowed to do under the Constitution, okay, without being stopped for six months to a year that it would normally take. And so look, we don’t want to use the emer- the shadow docket.
Before we go to the Supreme Court in every case, in every single case, we ask the court of appeals, “Will you stay this decision because it’s wrong until the Supreme Court can rule?” And the only time we have to go back to the Supreme Court is when that, that circuit says, “No, we won’t,” and then we’re forced to do that. So we’re not gonna stop doing that.
Todd Blanche made a great argument for Supreme Court reform.
The Supreme Court conservative majority is using their secret process to undercut the lower courts and do the Trump administration’s bidding 80% of the time.
Blanche tried to defend this behavior, but he ended up admitting what looks like partisan corruption and a lack of public accountability.
What do you think about Todd Blanche and the Supreme Court’s shadow docket? Join the discussion in the comments below.