Register Here: https://rutgers.zoom.us/meeting/register/Km-m5BEmTc-0-w6tzPNAbw

What is the Supreme Court’s "shadow docket"—and why is it drawing increased scrutiny?

Join us for a virtual discussion with Professor Stephen Vladeck (Georgetown Law), author of The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic. The event will examine how the Court is increasingly issuing decisions through emergency orders and unsigned, unexplained rulings—bypassing the traditional process of full briefing and oral argument.

Topics will include:

- The rise and role of the shadow docket

- How these rulings impact transparency and the rule of law

- The implications for the separation of powers and judicial accountability

- Whether recent shadow docket decisions have quietly shifted or overturned precedent, including Humphrey’s Executor

University of Chicago Law School Dean Adam Chilton and University of Chicago Harry Professor of Law William Baude will debate methods of statutory and constitutional interpretation. This event, co-sponsored by the UChicago Federalist Society chapter, is open to members of the University of Chicago Law School community; no RSVP is required. Lunch will be served. 

Adam Chilton is the Dean of the Law School, the Howard G. Krane Professor of Law, and the Walter Mander Research Scholar. Dean Chilton also currently serves as an editor of the Journal of Law and Economics. His primary research interest is in empirical law and economics. Dean Chilton received a BA and MA in Political Science from Yale University. After college, Adam worked as a management consultant for BCG. He then went to Harvard University, where he earned a JD and a PhD in Political Science. Before joining the faculty, he taught at the University of Chicago Law School as a Bigelow Fellow and Lecturer in Law.

William Baude is the Harry Kalven, Jr. Professor of Law and the Faculty Director of the Constitutional Law Institute at the University of Chicago Law School, where he teaches a range of subjects such as federal courts, constitutional law, election law, conflict of laws, and elements of the law. His current research interests include judicial remedies available against the federal government, the Supreme Court's emergency docket, and the legacy of William Winslow Crosskey. Professor Baude received his BS in Mathematics from the University of Chicago and his JD from Yale Law School. He then clerked for then-Judge Michael McConnell on the United States Court of Appeals, and Chief Justice John Roberts on the United States Supreme Court. Before joining the Chicago faculty, he was a fellow at the Stanford Constitutional Law Center, and a lawyer in Washington, DC.