Shadow Docket Sunlight Act of 2024

Introduced by Sheldon Whitehouse with a number of Dem co-sponsors. It requires disclosure of votes and at least one written opinion for the Court explaining any decision granting, denying, or vacating injunctive relief or vacating a stay of injunctive relief. The bill makes clear this covers cases within the Court's appellate jurisdiction and thus is an exercise of the exceptions-and-regulations clause.

Two thoughts.

1) Different complaints about the Court trigger different solutions--and those solutions may contradict one another. The need for transparency on the shadow docket requires opinions and vote counts. But the need to get the Court to act  less like a body of self-serving individuals requires eliminating vote counts and limiting opinions.

2) Attempts to control what, when, and how the Court reaches and explains its judgments presents an interesting question about the line between Congress' exceptions-and-regulations power and the "judicial power"/Klein/dictating case outcomes principle. Previous discussions have focused on whether Congress can stop or limit the form and content of opinions; this bill presents the flip side of whether Congress can require opinions. But both go to the same idea--how much can Congress control the presentation of a decision once made.

I expect to use this in Fed Courts in the fall, even if it has no chance of ever becoming law.