Why America's most powerful court owes the public an explanation

[Nevilledog]

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Steve Vladeck
@steve_vladeck
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It shouldn’t be controversial that, when #SCOTUS overturns/freezes a lower-court ruling, it ought to provide at least *some* explanation.

As I explain via @CNNOpinion, Thursday’s ruling clearing the way for an execution was the 14th this Term with none:

cnn.com
Opinion: Why America's most powerful court owes the public an explanation | CNN
In recent years, the justices have relied on unsigned and unexplained orders, part of their so-called shadow docket, to grant requests for emergency relief, writes Steve Vladeck. The court owes the...
3:41 PM · Sep 26, 2022

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/26/opinions/supreme-court-shadow-docket-vladeck/index.html


CNN
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By a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court cleared the way last week for Alabama to execute Alan Miller, who killed three men in a 1999 workplace rampage. The court ruling came around 9 p.m. Thursday, about three hours before Miller’s death warrant was set to expire. In a turn of events, the state wasn’t able to execute Miller before midnight because prison officials couldn’t access his vein to administer the lethal injection.

Nonetheless, it was the third time in less than a year that the justices have granted a state’s emergency request to allow an execution that lower courts had blocked to go forward.

And like the first two (which divided the high court 5-3 and 5-4, respectively), the majority wrote … nothing. There was no explanation for why the District Court, which wrote a 61-page opinion explaining why Miller was likely to succeed on his challenge to his method of execution, was wrong. There was no explanation for why the conservative-leaning, Atlanta-based federal appeals court, which refused to undo the District Court’s ruling by a 2-1 vote in a 32-page decision, was wrong. There was no explanation for why Alabama was right. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh voted to send a man to his death – and they couldn’t be bothered to tell him why.

The Thursday ruling was, unfortunately, not an outlier. Time and again in recent years, the justices have relied on unsigned and unexplained orders, part of their so-called shadow docket, to grant requests for emergency relief – whether to clear the way for executions, to block state Covid-19 restrictions or to unblock lower court injunctions of federal policies.

*snip*

[Hermit-The-Prog]

1. We need a Supreme COURT, not this EXTREME courtesan. Vote for your lives.

Roe, Roe, Roe your vote
against theocracy!
Republicans revoke your rights
and kill democracy!

THESE are the races that will determine control of the House of Representatives:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217192221

Stick 'em up for a blue wave: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217078977

[Nictuku]

2. How is it EVER an Emergency to Execute Someone??