April 16, 2026

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson ripped into her conservative colleagues’ to benefit the Trump administration, calling the orders “scratch-paper musings” that can “seem oblivious and thus ring hollow.”

Jackson delivered a lengthy assessment of roughly two dozen emergency docket orders issued last year that allowed President Donald Trump to put in place controversial policies on immigration, steep federal funding cuts and other topics, after lower courts found they were likely illegal.

While designed to be short-term, those orders have largely allowed Trump to move ahead — for now — with key parts of his sweeping agenda.

Jackson spoke for nearly an hour on Monday at Yale Law School, which posted a video of the event on Wednesday. You go, girl!

NEW: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson unloads on #SCOTUS handling of emergency/'shadow' docket, saying it often seems 'utterly irrational' & can lead to 'zombie' proceedings. KBJ rejects Kavanaugh's 'interim docket' label, calls for focus on real-world harms
www.politico.com/news/2026/04...

Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein.bsky.social) 2026-04-15T19:22:45.498Z

Justice Jackson says US Supreme Court's use of emergency docket is 'corrosive'

Reuters Legal (@legal.reuters.com) 2026-04-15T21:35:07Z

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote a lone dissent, and she took the extraordinary step of reading her dissent from the bench, a gesture reserved for rare, vehement disagreement with the majority. trib.al/ByT1mmo

The New Republic (@newrepublic.com) 2026-04-12T13:17:25.669070Z

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