The Inside Story of Five Days That Remade the Supreme Court

This article is long but well worth reading as it explains how John Roberts has turned the SC into a rogue partisan court. It starts with the first decision in 2016 that created the overused shadow docket of today, a ruling against Obama's plan to combat climate warming. Roberts and Obama did not have any rapport, perhaps because Obama was one of the Senators who voted against his confirmation. Was this unusual procedure payback?

"Just after 6 p.m. on a February evening in 2016, the Supreme Court issued a cryptic, one paragraph ruling that sent both climate policy and the court itself spinning in new directions.

For two centuries, the court had generally handled major cases at a stately pace that encouraged care and deliberation, relying on written briefs, oral arguments and in-person discussions. The justices composed detailed opinions that explained their thinking to the public and rendered judgment only after other courts had weighed in.

But this time, the justices were sprinting to block a major presidential initiative. By a 5-to-4 vote along partisan lines, the order halted President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, his signature environmental policy. They acted before any other court had addressed the plan’s lawfulness. The decision consisted of only legal boilerplate, without a word of reasoning."

Snip

"In public, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has cultivated a reputation for care and caution. The papers reveal a different side of him. At a critical moment for the country and the court, the papers show, he acted as a bulldozer in pushing to stop Mr. Obama’s plan to address the global climate crisis."

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/us/politics/supreme-court-shadow-docket.html?unlocked_article_code=1.b1A._0rs.Pet-DjMImwfC&smid=url-share