Jackson, Kavanaugh Differ on Emergency Docket Use

In a rare public exchange, Supreme Court Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Brett Kavanaugh expressed differing views on the court's increasing use of emergency rulings to support policies of the Trump administration during a panel discussion in Washington on Monday.

The event, an annual lecture honoring former federal judge and prosecutor Thomas A. Flannery, brought together the two justices before an audience of lawyers and judges in a federal courtroom where both had previously served on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. A federal judge moderated the discussion, posing questions to Jackson and Kavanaugh, who sat side by side.

Jackson, appointed to the Supreme Court by President Joe Biden in 2022, voiced concerns about what she described as an uptick in the court's involvement in so-called emergency docket cases. These rulings, often issued without full briefing or oral arguments, allow the court to intervene quickly in disputes, typically to lift lower court blocks on executive actions. She highlighted how the current administration has sought such relief to implement new policies before legal challenges can be fully resolved.

"This uptick in the court's willingness to get...