merits docket

[ mer-its dok-it ]

noun

1. a list of the cases resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court in a recorded vote after full briefing and oral arguments, and with written opinions signed by individual justices. Compare shadow docket ( def ).

Word History and Origins

Origin of merits docket¹

First recorded in 1885–90

Example Sentences

The court’s brief order did not suspend the program in the meantime or add the case to the court’s merits docket.

From New York Times

These reforms would not be taking away the court’s power; they would be redistributing it away from the shadow docket and toward the merits docket.

From Slate

After all, to a greater extent than has been true in generations, the merits docket is providing plenty of fodder all by itself.

From Slate

But what happens on the merits docket is possible only because of the evolution of the shadow docket—especially the power the justices have claimed to decide not only which cases they’ll resolve, but which questions they’ll resolve within those cases.

From Slate

Indeed, almost 10 months before the justices would use the merits docket to controversially repudiate the constitutional right to a pre-viability abortion that the court had recognized in Roe v.

From Slate