Professor Barry McDonald Quoted in "Chief Justice Co-Signs Kagan's Rebuke of Shadow Docket" -- Law360

Professor Barry P. McDonald is quoted in the Law360 article, "Chief Justice Co-Signs Kagan's Rebuke of Shadow Docket." The article considers Justice Kagan's dissenting opinion in a case over a Clean Water Act rule, which was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts. The Supreme Court uses the shadow docket to decide controversial cases without full briefing or arguments.

Excerpt from "Chief Justice Co-Signs Kagan's Rebuke of Shadow Docket"

"I think [Justice Roberts] is in agreement that the 'new conservative majority,' if you will, is misusing the emergency relief (shadow) docket in some cases to essentially make merits rulings that should be left for plenary review by the court," said Barry McDonald, a professor at Pepperdine University School of Law, in an email to Law360.

"I think he agrees that in this case and some other recent ones that the emergency relief rulings are being driven more by a like or dislike for the result below rather than whether the court's traditional interim relief criteria are truly satisfied or not," McDonald said.

The complete article may be found at Law360