Supreme Court faces backlog of emergency cases

At the Supreme Court, a staggering number of emergency appeals are pending, most brought by the administration and ranging from birthright citizenship to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to independent agency leader firings.

There are nine emergency applications now before the justices. And yet, as they pile up, the court is taking its time.

The stasis is unusual — but so is the massive emergency docket activity.

A new layer of mystery was added Tuesday, when a later case jumped the line.

The justices allowed Trump to enforce his transgender troops ban, which was blocked nationwide by a lower court. The high court received the request after those others were already pending, and the briefing completed just last Friday.

Another curious element: The court has tended to issue explanations of its emergency rulings on Trump policies (see here, here, and here), but Tuesday’s order contained no rationale. Even the three liberal justices refrained from writing anything in dissent.

As questions remain regarding the lack of progress on the other cases, the court’s plate is about to get fuller.

In the next few days, the administration’s requests to provide DOGE access to critical Social Security systems and end deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans will be ready for the justices.

Decision season kicks off next week. But the deluge of emergency applications is sucking up valuable time that the justices would typically devote to the term’s merits cases.

If Justice Neil Gorsuch wants to make it to Prague to teach his annual summer class, they better get a move on. LINK