At public events, some Supreme Court justices have defended their use of the emergency docket as a legitimate response to the increase in swift presidential policy-making by executive order, as opposed to legislation passed through Congress. Offering extensive reasoning or explanation, they argued, would risk locking the court into a position that might not turn out to be its final view.

I could almost accept this reasoning on the vagueness of their rulings. But the fact that, in nearly every case, they’ve allowed the administration to keep doing things that are causing massive upheaval in the lives of thousands of people seems at direct odds with such a conservative attitude.