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A Supreme Court Mystery

Why has the Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration so often? In many cases, it won’t say.

My colleague Adam Liptak has a new story about a curious type of Supreme Court case. These aren’t the lawsuits about big constitutional questions. Those wind their way upward slowly through district and circuit courts. They yield rulings, reversals and reams of briefings along the way. At the end, justices interrogate lawyers during oral arguments and then exchange drafts of their views. The result, Adam writes, “is often a comprehensive set of opinions that can be as long as a short novel.”

The cases Adam writes about now are something else — emergency applications. These require a snap decision about whether a policy can go ahead or must wait while lower judges argue over its legality. Critics call this the “shadow docket,” and the court usually rules on the urgent cases within weeks. Trump has won almost all 18 of these petitions. And unlike normal rulings, justices often don’t explain their rationale. Some recent examples:

On Monday, the court said Trump could dismantle the Education Department. The unsigned order was a single paragraph about procedural mechanics. Adam called it “an exercise of power, not reason.”
In June, the court let the administration deport migrants to countries other than the ones they came from. Since the justices offered no rationale, the government had to ask for clarification about whether the ruling applied to men it had already sent to a U.S. base in Djibouti. (The answer was yes.)
In May, the court allowed Trump to enforce a ban on transgender troops serving in the U.S. military. Its ruling was brief and unsigned.

Fast thinking, fast work

None of these emergency decisions are final. In each, lawyers can fight the policy in lower courts. Perhaps the Supreme Court will eventually decide that the government can’t deport migrants from around the world to Sudan or unmake a federal agency without the say-so of Congress. But by then, critics of the shadow docket say, the work will already be done.

The justices themselves have battled over the propriety of emergency rulings. In a 2021 dissent, Elana Kagan rued a midnight ruling that effectively overturned Roe v. Wade in Texas. A month later, Samuel Alito returned fire in a speech:

The catchy and sinister term ‘shadow docket’ has been used to portray the court as having been captured by a dangerous cabal that resorts to sneaky and improper methods to get its ways. … You can’t expect the E.M.T.s and the emergency rooms to do the same thing that a team of physicians and nurses will do when they are handling a matter when time is not of the essence in the same way.

Some law professors have built a new database tracking the rise of the emergency docket. The first half of 2025 represented a record high, with 15 emergency applications accepted as of June 18. The next highest peak was 11, from the final year of the previous Trump administration.

A Senate Vote

Early this morning, the Senate approved a White House request to cancel about $8 billion in funding for foreign aid and $1 billion for public broadcasting. Congress had previously authorized the spending.

This matters to the aid programs and local news outlets that rely on that money. But it also matters because the Constitution gives Congress the “power of the purse” — the power to decide what the government spends. By bowing to Trump’s request, Republicans made the rare choice to cede that power.

The Senate voted 51 to 48. Two Republican senators objected: Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. The House is expected to give final approval to the package later this week and send it to Trump to sign.

On social media, Trump berated supporters who are upset with the administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. He blamed Democrats.
The administration fired a Manhattan prosecutor who worked on cases against Epstein and an associate.
Late night hosts again covered Epstein and MAGA.

Immigration

At Florida’s new immigrant detention center, named Alligator Alcatraz, detainees say they live in tents, shower infrequently and lack medication.

Morale is low among the California National Guard troops whom Trump deployed to Los Angeles, and some are questioning the mission.

Many ICE raids take place in public spaces — parking lots, job sites, neighborhood streets. In the video below, Jennifer Medina, a political reporter, speaks with a woman who recorded an arrest near her home. Click to watch.

Middle East

A stampede outside an aid distribution center in southern Gaza killed at least 20 people — the latest in a string of deaths near aid sites in the enclave.
Israel attacked Syria’s capital. It said the airstrikes aimed to help drive government forces from a region dominated by the Druse minority, which Israel has pledged to protect.
Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, made a highly unusual appearance at Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial.
Dozens of people, including children, died in a shopping mall fire in eastern Iraq, local officials said.

More International News

Eswatini said it would send five migrants deported there by the U.S. to their countries of origin. The U.S. had said those countries wouldn’t accept them.
Germany, Austria and Poland have set up vehicle search checkpoints to crack down on migration. They’re also snarling traffic.
Japan’s agriculture minister has released stockpiled rice in an effort to lower prices and mollify voters.
One of China’s most popular video games is called Revenge on Gold Diggers. It’s prompted debate about misogyny, gender dynamics and economic pressures, Li Yuan writes.

More on the economy

Months after Trump announced sweeping tariffs, inflation remains muted, the job market is strong. Will it last?
The U.S. reached a trade agreement with Indonesia. It exempts U.S. goods from tariffs while levying a 19 percent duty on Indonesian goods.

OPINIONS

Students thrive in liberal arts programs. Universities should fund them accordingly, Jennifer Frey writes.

Here’s a column by Lydia Polgreen on Trump’s antagonistic diplomacy.

SPORTS

N.C.A.A.: Fox Sports is close to completing a deal with Barstool Sports. The agreement would place Barstool’s C.E.O., Dave Portnoy, on Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff” on Saturdays, and Barstool content could fill a weekday morning cable TV gap.

Lives Lived: Audun Groenvold, who won bronze for Norway in ski cross at the 2010 Winter Olympics, died after being struck by lightning during a cabin trip. He was 49.

ARTS AND IDEAS

It is boom time for America’s cheese makers — but not because of cheese. Whey, a byproduct of cheese making that was once considered waste, is now in demand from weight lifters and health-conscious people seeking to get more protein into their bodies. Read more about how our protein obsession is transforming the dairy industry.

This math tutor has no acting aspirations. Wes Anderson keeps casting him anyway.
Paulette Jiles, a horse-riding poet and historical novelist who evoked the grit and grandeur of the American West in “News of the World,” died at 82.
A fossil of a young carnivorous dinosaur fetched over $30 million at Sotheby’s. The auction house had estimated its value at $4 million to $6 million.