College of Law dean and constitutional law expert Vikram Amar was a recent guest on the WGN Radio show "Let's Get Legal," where he discussed the new Texas abortion law, explained what is meant by the term "shadow docket," and more.
"The Supreme Court typically does not decide cases to do justice to the parties. By that I mean, they are taking cases to issue statements of law that have broad ramifications, not to make sure that individual litigants are treated right," he said.
"The only reason, ostensibly, that they will step in to these shadow docket cases is to preserve their opportunity to get at an issue that they think is of general importance and where time is of the essence such that if they don't step in now they're worried that something will happen that will prevent them from taking up the issue later in the normal course...
"The Court's decision not to grant review doesn't mean that it agrees with what is going on, and it doesn't even mean that the issue is not ultimately worthy of Supreme Court attention. What it means is the Court does not think there is anything particularly time sensitive about having to take the case now, because they think that later on the issue will come back and they can look at it later if they want to. Recognizing that in the meanwhile some parties may be hurt by the delay, the Court's not really there to worry about the parties, the Court's there to worry about the law and the formation of the law in the long run."
Listen to the full interview at wgnradio.com.