Things to Read This Week (5/11/26)
Clarity and Shadows
Clarity and Section Five, by Chris Green, arguing that Boerne is wrong (which everybody knows, I think?) and that instead the same principle of judicial restraint that leads states to win unclear cases under Section One should lead Congress to win unclear cases under Section Five. I’ve long wondered about exactly this, so it’s especially encouraging to see Green agree.
Merits Positions and Supreme Court Voting on Stays and Injunctions, by Greg Goelzhauser (also the author of The Applications Docket). “This paper presents empirical evidence that Supreme Court voting on stays and injunctions is associated with justices' expected preferences for resolving the merits. This result is especially pronounced when the merits remain pending before a lower court.”
The Interim Docket, by me. My take on the transformation of the Shadow Docket, both in name and substance, with some suggestions about what has been lost and might be recovered. Still waiting on SSRN approval, but you can download the PDF here.
Fingers crossed, but I think the link to the Interim Docket works now: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6741778
Moreover, many of the most important decisions on this docket aren't "interim" at all but are, in effect, final.