So there are a whole host of things going on in recent times that fall into the following general pattern:

1. The Trump administration does a thing, which represents a radical departure from the status quo.
2. Affected parties who think the thing is illegal, in substance and/or at least with respect to process, bring a suit in federal court.
3. A federal judge rules in favor of the affected parties and issues an injunction preventing the thing from going forward, possibly on a nationwide basis (as opposed to just with respect to the parties who brought suit).
4. In addition to pursuing the normal appellate process, the Trump administration goes directly to SCOTUS via the so-called shadow docket in order to try and get the injunction lifted.
5. SCOTUS needs to do something, which could mean leaving the injunction in place while the appellate process plays out (in which case the thing is delayed), or overturning the injunction while the appellate process plays out (in which the thing can, in effect, go ahead), or perhaps narrowing the scope of the injunction, or perhaps jumping the normal queue and getting into the merits of the legal issues.

I think I will be writing a lot of posts in this blog series about legal disputes that follow this type of pattern. That starts today, when SCOTUS released an order relating to a shadow docket case called U.S. v. Shilling.

This case has come out of a theme that I didn’t adequately address in my opening summary of the first 100 days of the Trump Administration, namely the administration’s “war on woke”. Consistent with views expressed in the campaign and that likely helped Trump win the election, the new administration has taken a number of aggressive positions against DEI in general and, in particular, against transgender rights.

As part of that, about a week after taking office Trump issued Executive Order 14183, the main thrust of which is the view that “expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.” DOD policy towards transgender soldiers has been seesawing back and forth over the past decade, but in his first week of office President Biden had issued an executive order that reinstated a 2016 policy, which had been watered down by the Trump administration via a 2019 policy. The new 2025 policy would be harsher than the 2019 policy, in that it would lead to discharging all active duty trans soliders as well as prevent trans individuals from joining the military going forward.

The plaintiffs in this case, filing suit in federal court in Washington State, received a nationwide injunction preventing the administration from discharging trans soldiers. The 9th Circuit declined to stay that injunction. However today, over the objection of the 3 liberal justices, SCOTUS stayed the injunction while the government pursues appeals of the District Court finding to the 9th Circuit and, potentially, SCOTUS. As a practical matter, it appears this will enable the government to go ahead and start discharging trans soldiers (with, I suppose, the potential that they be reinstated down the line, were the government to ultimately lose the case).

It is hard to know what ought to be read within the tea leaves of today’s SCOTUS action. For one, like most shadow docket orders, the majority did not provide any explanation behind its ruling, nor did any of the dissenters choose to write anything. For another, the members of SCOTUS have some important information that none of the rest of us have: They presumably know the outcome and reasoning of U.S. v. Skrmetti, a case involving transgender rights and the 14th Amendment which was argued before SCOTUS in December but where the opinions have not yet been made public.

In other news, the administration’s war on Harvard continues. Today Secretary of Education Linda McMahon (yes, that’s the wrestling executive, and someone whose only prior background in education was serving one year on the Connecticut State Board of Education, from which she resigned as it was about to be reported that she had falsely claimed holding a bachelor’s degree in education) sent a truly unhinged letter to Harvard, in which she announced that the federal government will no longer provide any new research grants to the university. This is in addition to the administration’s action last month to freeze $2.2 billion in previously issued research grants, over which Harvard has filed a lawsuit.

Finally, Prime Minister Carney traveled to the White House today to meet with President Trump for the first time. Strangely, the two leaders met with reporters in the Oval Office before, rather than after, their private meeting.