Politics
This article first appeared on OtherWorlds.org.
If you want to understand how the Supreme Court’s MAGA majority has undermined democracy, you need to understand the “shadow docket.”
The shadow docket — as the court’s emergency docket has come to be known — is one of the more dramatic and corrupt ways that MAGA-aligned justices are enabling President Trump to take away our freedoms.
Normally, the justices don’t hear a case until after lower courts have considered it fully and made a final decision. But a party to a case may describe it as so urgent that quick “relief” is needed from the Supreme Court, claiming that “irreparable harm” may occur while lower courts consider it.
That puts it on the emergency docket.
Since time is supposedly of the essence, the justices don’t hold oral arguments. And if they grant the “relief” and undo the lower court’s order, they often give us little if any explanation why. Lower court judges are left without much guidance on whether or how to use the decision to guide their own decisions.
With so little sunlight, no wonder the term “shadow docket” has stuck.
Although Donald Trump’s Department of Labor announced in April 2025 that “Trump’s Golden Age puts American workers first,” that contention is contradicted by the facts.
Indeed, Trump has taken the lead in reducing workers’ incomes. One of his key actions along these lines occurred on March 14, 2025, when he issued an executive order that scrapped a Biden-era regulation raising the minimum wage for employees of private companies with federal contracts. Some 327,300 workers had benefited from Biden’s measure, which produced an average wage increase of $5,228 per year. With Trump’s reversal of policy, they became ripe for pay cuts of up to 25 percent.
This article first appeared on Substack
I live in Columbus, Ohio, one of several cities that has been terrorized by ICE raids in recent months. It’s been tough to get into the Christmas spirit while our neighbors live in fear of masked goons jumping them in the Kroger parking lot.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents terrorized Columbus today, trolling parking lots and arresting people in various parts of the city. Officials with the City of Columbus, including the Mayor, City Attorney, Police Chief, City Council President Shannon G. Hardin, and Councilmember Lourdes Barroso de Padilla held a press conference to reiterate their support for immigrants who have chosen to make Columbus their home.
Yesterday, Ohio’s Republican supermajority passed a bill to re-criminalize marijuana and completely change the law Ohioans passed in 2023.
If you want to understand how the Supreme Court’s MAGA majority has undermined democracy, you need to understand the “shadow docket.”
The shadow docket — as the court’s emergency docket has come to be known — is one of the more dramatic and corrupt ways that MAGA-aligned justices are enabling President Trump to take away our freedoms.
Normally, the justices don’t hear a case until after lower courts have considered it fully and made a final decision. But a party to a case may describe it as so urgent that quick “relief” is needed from the Supreme Court, claiming that “irreparable harm” may occur while lower courts consider it.
That puts it on the emergency docket.
Since time is supposedly of the essence, the justices don’t hold oral arguments. And if they grant the “relief” and undo the lower court’s order, they often give us little if any explanation why. Lower court judges are left without much guidance on whether or how to use the decision to guide their own decisions.
With so little sunlight, no wonder the term “shadow docket” has stuck.
Although President Donald Trump has claimed that “every policy” of his administration was “designed to lift up the American worker,” he has acted consistently, since returning to office in January 2025, to undermine workers’ chosen representatives, America’s labor unions.
The most flagrant Trump action along these lines occurred in March 2025, when he issued an executive order that terminated collective bargaining rights for more than 1 million federal government employees. This measure, the largest single union-busting action in American history, ended union representation and protections for 1 out of 14 unionized workers in the United States.
This article first appeared on Substack.
This past Saturday, as Buckeyes everywhere donned their scarlet and grey and prepared for THE game, Honesty For Ohio Education posted a graphic that everyone needs to see.
The image above really highlights how Ohio’s new law — SB 1 — has already harmed OSU and universities across the state.