The Supreme Court's emergency docket—often called the shadow docket—looked markedly different in the 2025-26 term, according to a new statistical analysis published by SCOTUSblog. The court resolved 123 emergency applications between October 6, 2025, and October 4, 2026, including 36 substantive requests for stays, injunctions, or other non-capital intervention. That is a 27% drop from the prior term's 49 substantive cases, and the decline came entirely from the Trump administration, whose filings fell from 21 to 9. Other state and private applicants held steady, going from 26 to 27.
The administration's success rate also tumbled. The court granted relief in 5 of its 9 applications (56%), compared with 19 of 21 (90%) in the 2024-25 term. Notably, only one of the administration's cases drew a unanimous decision, and it lost that one. Its cases also averaged 26 days from filing to decision, versus 15 days for all other substantive applications. The overall grant rate for substantive applications barely moved—50% this term versus 53% last term—but the composition of winners shifted.
Public disagreement among the justices remained high, though it eased from last term's peak. Justices noted dissents or disagreements in 61% of substantive applications (22 of 36), down from 76% but far above the pre-2014 average of 13.5%. When the court granted relief, at least one justice dissented 89% of the time. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson led with 15 noted dissents, followed by Justices Sonia Sotomayor (13) and Elena Kagan (12); Justice Amy Coney Barrett was the only justice with none. The court also explained itself more often, issuing written opinions in 39% of substantive applications, up from 31% last term, and decisions came faster, averaging 18 days versus 30.
On the capital docket, the court denied all 41 requests to pause executions but granted two of three state requests to let executions proceed after lower courts had paused them. Refiled applications—where a party denied by one justice refiles with another—hit a 21-term high of 43, and all were denied without a noted dissent. The two SCOTUSblog pieces, one a detailed stat pack and the other a summary snapshot, report consistent figures; the snapshot adds that the administration's wins and losses varied by subject area, with a losing record in one of three categories (immigration, elections, or executive power), though the specific breakdown is reserved for the full stat pack.