FILE-Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson gives a joint lecture at the Ceremonial Courtroom at the US Courthouse on March 9, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Maxine Wallace/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson denounced the conservative-majority Supreme Court for deciding cases on an emergency basis without letting the cases play out in lower courts, with some of the rulings appeasing President Donald Trump.
Jackson is one of the Supreme Court’s three liberal justices and made remarks about the emergency docket at a speech on April 13 at Yale Law School in Connecticut.
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Reuters reported that the Supreme Court typically decides cases on its emergency docket without public oral arguments and written briefings of the other cases the high court oversees. Moreover, rulings in emergency cases are issued at an accelerated rate beyond the appeals process.
Trump appointed three of the court's six conservative justices, and Jackson was appointed by President Joe Biden in 2022. Jackson is one of the nine-member Supreme Court's three liberal justices.
What did Justice Jackson say about court rulings favoring Trump?
What they're saying:
During her speech at Yale Law School, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said the conservative Supreme Court justices are mediating too quickly and frequently in situations that can be managed by lower courts.
Jackson also explained that the heightened use of the emergency docket has a "corrosive effect" on the U.S. judicial system, including creating "zombie proceedings" in lower courts when the Supreme Court justices get involved while cases are still pending there, according to Reuters.
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Jackson alluded to her time as a Supreme Court clerk in 1999, explaining that the emergency docket was used mainly by death row inmates attempting to prevent an execution. She noted that during her time as a clerk, Supreme Court justices were reluctant to decide high-profile cases on an emergency basis.
Reuters noted that the Supreme Court has been condemned, including by lower court judges, for using the emergency docket to make significant policy changes, usually favoring conservative interests. In past years, Supreme Court justices only utilized emergency orders to address more routine procedural problems.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court’s emergency docket has been used more frequently since President Donald Trump’s return to the White House last year.
Reuters reported that in emergency docket cases, the Supreme Court has allowed Trump to enforce policies obstructed by lower courts despite questions over their legal grounds including immigration, mass federal layoffs, and barring transgender people from the military.
The Source: Information for this story was provided by Reuters. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.