Supreme Court Justices Jackson and Kavanaugh clash over handling of Trump cases

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: NBC News

March 9, 2026, 7:46 PM EDT


WASHINGTON — Internal Supreme Court divisions over how the high court has frequently ruled in favor of the Trump administration in emergency situations spilled out into public Monday with liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh locking horns.

The court's conservative majority has on a regular basis blocked lower court rulings that have stymied President Donald Trump's agenda, sparking criticism from within and outside the judiciary.

Jackson, often a vocal dissenter in those cases, forcefully aired her critique of the court's actions in a rare public appearance with Kavanaugh at an event for lawyers and judges held at the federal courthouse in Washington. Bemoaning the recent increase in such emergency filings — requested to challenge lower court rulings — she suggested that the number of filings would drop if the court were stingier about granting them.

The procedure has become known as the “shadow docket” because the court rarely hears arguments and often issues terse decisions with little explanation. The Supreme Court decisions can allow policies to go into effect at early stages in legal challenges, long before lower courts have reached any definitive conclusions. The cases might then return to the Supreme Court later in the process, leading to final decisions on the merits.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-justices-jackson-kavanaugh-clash-handling-trump-cases-rcna262622

[riversedge]

1. I am so glad we have Justice Jackson on the SC!!

[mountain grammy]

4. Yes, so true..she is brilliant

[MLWR]

2. The shadow docket needs to be eliminated.

It serves only as a lazy-@$$ means for the justices not to do their jobs of justifying with rational argument their giving trump whatever he wants, and even violating the words and/or principles laid out in the Constitution.

[C_U_L8R]

3. The Shadow Docket could be rebranded

Maybe The Authoritarian Shortcut or The Supreme Favor Dispenser.
Though Shadow Docket sounds appropriately corrupt.

[BComplex]

5. We need to impeach the members of the court who lied in their confirmation hearings,

or who have been hob-nobbing with political hacks who are offering them the big nazi (Heritage foundation, Federalist society) bucks to rule in their favor.

[cab67]

6. A prediction:

- if Democrats win control of the Senate this November, Clarence Thomas will immediately announce his retirement. Alito might also do so.

The Rs know Democrats won't let Trump appoint another hard-right ideologue to the Supreme Court. They'll follow the McConnell Rule and ram the nominations through before the new Congress is sworn in in January 2027.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. The prediction was that Alito would do so first

as he apparently hinted at it with hit latest book.

[cab67]

10. I would have thought Thomas because of his age.

[BaronChocula]

11. Good

And Democrats should refuse nomination hearings based on the McConnell rule - that the voters should decide SCOTUS nominations via the next presidential election.

[cab67]

12. Unfortunately -

as long as Republicans control the Senate, they can call hearings and approve the nominations. There won't be much Democrats can do about it. They can't filibuster these things anymore.

[travelingthrulife]

8. Expand the court by multiples of 9, say 27 or more. Make them rotate randomly into

9 judge panels. They will have more difficulty making these political alliances. Plus, we need more justices, we have lots more people and legal business.

Make them less special. They are public servants.

Term limits and actual, real punishments for crimes or unethical behavior.

[littlemissmartypants]

9. A short description...

The SD encourages drunken stupid judges to expand their laziness.