President Donald Trump’s ambitious agenda has been met with order after order from lower courts temporarily blocking him. Many of those have been lifted by the Supreme Court, handing Trump several wins and raising questions about how lower courts have been handling his cases.
These decisions have mostly come on what’s known as the “emergency” or “shadow” docket, a set of more urgent appeals that the Supreme Court often decides without oral argument.
The Supreme Court sometimes issues a ruling without explanation in these cases.
The administration has been remarkably successful at the high court, obtaining relief in 14 of the 18 appeals that have been ruled on by the justices.
So far, the Supreme Court has allowed Trump to block spending across multiple departments, remove high-ranking bureaucrats and probationary employees, and move forward with immigration enforcement measures.
Perhaps his biggest victory came in June when the justices ruled against the use of nationwide injunctions. Such orders have blocked many of Trump’s policies on a nationwide basis, rather than just for the parties before the court.
