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Secret memos obtained by The New York Times illuminate the origins of the court’s now-routine “shadow docket” rulings on presidential power.

Just after 6 p.m. on a February evening in 2016, the Supreme Court issued a cryptic, one paragraph ruling that sent both climate policy and the court itself spinning in new directions.

For two centuries, the court had generally handled major cases at a stately pace that encouraged care and deliberation, relying on written briefs, oral arguments and in-person discussions. The justices composed detailed opinions that explained their thinking to the public and rendered judgment only after other courts had weighed in.

But this time, the justices were sprinting to block a major presidential initiative. By a 5-to-4 vote along partisan lines, the order halted President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, his signature environmental policy. They acted before any other court had addressed the plan’s lawfulness. The decision consisted of only legal boilerplate, without a word of reasoning.

At the time, the ruling seemed like a curious one-off. But that single paragraph turned out to be a sharp and lasting break. That night marks the birth, many legal experts believe, of the court’s modern “shadow docket,” the secretive track that the Supreme Court has since used to make many major decisions, including granting President Trump more than 20 key victories on issues from immigration to agency power.

Read more via the free gift article link.

The actual SCOTUS Shadow Papers can be viewed here: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/04/18/us/politics/supreme-court-shadow-docket-papers.html?unlocked\_article\_code=1.cFA.MMVg.VcheFywS4r7M&smid=nytcore-ios-share

Article: https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/inspector-general-finds-ohare-airport-workers-drinking-on-the-job-cpd-employees-committing-ppp-fraud/

Report PDF: Chicago Office of Inspector General Q1 2026 Quarterly Report

O'Hare International Airport workers drinking on the job and Chicago Police Department employees scamming the federal government were just some of the jaw-dropping findings in the latest quarterly report from the city's inspector general.

Inspector General Deborah Witzburg's job is to sniff out wrongdoing by city workers, and her office's first quarterly report of 2026 revealed a stunning number of findings that involve scamming, scheming, and illegally profiting from work as a city employee.

"These are people who are supposed to be on the clock, working at the airports, and instead they are drinking at bars nearby," Witzburg said.

In her office's final report before she steps down when her term in office ends later this month, Witzburg's team reported eight employees at the Chicago Department of Aviation were caught drinking alcohol while on the clock.

"At a party thrown by an off-duty CDA employee, several on-the-clock CDA employees drank beer, cocktails, and shots of liquor before returning to O'Hare to complete their shifts. Many of the employees' supervisors and colleagues were aware of the drinking but did nothing about it. On multiple occasions, CDA employees drank alcohol while out to lunch with their supervisors and, in some instances, the supervisors paid for the alcohol," the report states.

At least six other Department of Aviation workers were investigated for spending hours idling on the job, demonstrating incompetence, stealing city property, and lying during the investigation.

"This is an abuse of the public trust, it's a misuse of taxpayer dollar dollars, and we have people not doing the jobs that the taxpayers are paying them to do," Witzburg said.

The Department of Aviation agreed to terminate seven employees and put them on the do not hire list and to discipline four others. Three others had transferred to other city departments before the inspector general's investigation was completed. Two of those were fired and the other was disciplined.

Meantime, Witzburg's team also uncovered a disturbing trend at the Chicago Police Department.

"Ten city employees whom we found to have committed [Paycheck Protection Program] fraud; nine of these were members – current or former members – of the Chicago Police Department, one of them was a City Council employee," Witzburg said.

According to the report, workers illegally pocketed between $20,000 and more than $41,000 in Paycheck Protection Program loans from a massive federal COVID-19 pandemic relief effort – some by concocting companies that didn't exist to pocket federal assistance funds.

The Police Department agreed with the inspector general's recommendation to fire the nine CPD employees accused of PPP fraud and place them on the do not hire list. The inspector general also recommended the one aldermanic employee accused of PPP fraud be fired and placed on the do not hire list, but the alderperson has yet to indicate if they agree with the findings.

"You don't get to both defraud the government and work for the government," Witzburg said.

In another investigation at City Hall, Witzburg's report said a former mayor's office staffer got their child a job with a city contractor, and then as a possible payback, "attempted to facilitate $9.6 million in payments to the contractor to which the contractor was not entitled."

"People who enjoy the tremendous privilege of working in the public service do not get to use the authority of their city position for their personal benefit or for the benefit of their family," Witzburg said.

Mayor Brandon Johnson said that employee was from a prior administration. That former staffer could be fined up to $20,000 if the city's Board of Ethics agrees with the inspector general's misconduct finding.

Witzburg wraps up her term as inspector general next week, and said her office has faced "real challenges with cooperation" from the Johnson administration.

"I believe we have seen a pattern from the Johnson administration, and particularly the Law Department, in blocking OIG's access to the informarion we need to do our work," she said.

NYT: The Shadow Papers, The Inside Story of Five Days That Remade the Supreme Court

Inspector general finds O'Hare Airport workers drinking on the job, CPD employees committing PPP fraud