The Immigration Shadow Docket: How Emergency Orders are Reshaping the Law

Alarm over the Supreme Court’s expanding use of the shadow docket continues to grow, particularly in immigration cases, where the Trump administration has relied on emergency orders to accelerate a violent immigration enforcement campaign that inflicts severe harm on immigrant communities, especially communities of color. The Stanford Center for Racial Justice aptly captures this dynamic in a recent blog post: 

“Where it concerns immigration policy, the shadow docket has become the Trump administration’s favorite courtroom - because the government wins there and no one explains why.”

Join the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law for a free CLE webinar, The Immigration Shadow Docket: How Emergency Orders are Reshaping the Law, on March 2, 2026, from 11:00-12:30pm PT. The training will be led by Stephen Vladeck, nationally recognized expert on the Supreme Court and professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center. 

During the first year of the Trump administration’s second term, the Supreme Court has already issued 25 shadow docket decisions, 9 of which involve issues of immigration, with more expected to follow. This training will examine the shadow docket decisions that are reshaping immigration law and policy and will provide guidance on how legal practitioners should consider and respond to these rulings. 

Stephen Vladeck is a nationally recognized expert on the federal courts; the Supreme Court; national security law; and military justice.

Vladeck is the author of the New York Times bestselling book, “The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic.” He is CNN’s Supreme Court Analyst and editor and author of “One First,” a popular weekly newsletter about the Supreme Court.

He is a highly regarded appellate advocate, having argued before the Supreme Court and numerous lower federal civilian and military courts. 

Vladeck graduated from Yale Law School in 2004, where he was executive editor of the Yale Law Journal. After law school, he clerked for the Honorable Marsha S. Berzon on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Honorable Rosemary Barkett on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.