Jackson says all is not well on the Supreme Court emergency docket

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson used a Thursday lecture at the University of the District of Columbia School of Law to criticize the Supreme Court's growing reliance on its emergency docket, arguing the court applies no consistent standard across cases and risks becoming a 'fast pass' for privileged litigants. She said the court should require parties to show real, unavoidable harm rather than simply arguing the lower court erred, and should weigh competing harms before considering the merits.

Jackson noted past justices, including Antonin Scalia, often declined to intervene at all, treating stay requests as exceptions rather than routine business. She warned that unexplained summary orders can produce real damage to plaintiffs while looking to the public like the court is acting arbitrarily, undermining the institution's only real currency: its reasoning.

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