Every other Tuesday, the team behind Civics 101 joins NHPR’s All Things Considered host Julia Furukawa to talk about how our democratic institutions actually work.

When thinking of cases in front of the Supreme Court, one might picture lawyers, arguments, deliberations and opinions being handed down. But each year, there are a set of cases that receive rulings but never see the light of a courtroom.

Civics 101 host Nick Capodice spoke with Julia about the shadow docket , and what these behind-the-scenes rulings mean.

Transcript

What is the shadow docket?

Well, I hesitate to define something by its negative, but I got to do it in this instance. The shadow docket is a term for actions the Supreme Court takes that are not what we usually think of when we think of SCOTUS's pow

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