The Supreme Court ended its term last week, but the justices aren’t done yet, partly due to a legal blitz President Donald Trump has strategically deployed in his second term, one that’s proven surprisingly effective in advancing his sweeping agenda.
Lawyers for the Trump administration filed their 20th emergency application to the Supreme Court Thursday in just a 23-week period.
The dizzying pace of applications comes as the administration looks to advance some of Trump’s sweeping policy actions. And, in many cases, the court’s 6-3 majority has given the administration the green light to proceed.
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The high court has ruled in Trump’s favor in the majority of emergency applications, allowing the administration to proceed with its ban on transgender service members in the military, its termination of millions of dollars in Education Department grants and its firing of probationary employees across the federal government, among many other actions.
Like most emergency orders, the rulings are often unsigned, giving little indication what the justices might be thinking.
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Emergency applications — and the Supreme Court’s responses — aren’t meant to offer lasting relief. But Trump has found success using a “move fast and break things” strategy to push key requests through the court’s so-called “shadow” docket.
For context, Trump has filed more emergency applications in five months than his predecessors did in years. Former President Joe Biden submitted just 19 over his entire term, while presidents Obama and George W. Bush filed only eight combined during their time in office.
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In the interim, the strategy has allowed him to enforce many of the sweeping executive orders he signed upon taking office. These orders were met with hundreds of lawsuits across the country and blocked by many lower courts, prompting the administration to appeal them, again and again, through the federal judiciary.
For now, those near-term wins have energized Trump allies, allowing them to press forward with a blitz of executive actions and claim “victory,” however temporary. The approach allows Trump to advance major policy priorities without relying on a slow-moving Congress.
