The U.S. Supreme Court publishes its official writings in two primary online categories: "Opinions of the Court" and "Opinions Relating to Orders." While public attention often focuses on the "emergency" or "shadow" docket, the court’s website does not use those formal labels, instead grouping stay applications, certiorari denials, and individual statements under the "orders docket."
For the October Term 2025, which concludes on Oct. 5, 2026, the orders docket has featured 37 separate matters with written opinions. Merits decisions in argued cases are traditionally published in the "Opinions" section, whereas the orders docket contains explanations from individual justices regarding the court's refusal to hear a case or its decision on interim relief.
The majority of entries on the current orders docket—28 out of 37—involved "dissents from denial" or "statements regarding" the denial of certiorari, which is the process by which the court decides whether to review a lower court's ruling. Only nine matters involved emergency stay applications, four of which were related to death penalty executions. Criminal law issues appeared in 23 of the 37 matters, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Samuel Alito being the most frequent authors in these cases.
For specific groups like Medicaid enrollees or small-business owners involved in regulatory disputes, the orders docket can signal future shifts in law. A dissent from denial, such as Justice Neil Gorsuch’s 10-page dissent regarding jury sizes in 2022, can serve as a precursor to a future case being granted full merits review. In the criminal justice sphere, these opinions impact how lower courts handle qualified immunity for government officers, the use of DNA testing for exculpatory evidence, and the methods used in state executions.
A person involved in a federal lawsuit would notice the impact of the orders docket through the establishing of individual judicial positions that may later become majority rulings. For example, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s dissent regarding "vexatious litigant" orders directly concerns the rights of incarcerated persons to continue filing petitions. The next major dates for the court include the formal end of the October Term 2025 on Oct. 5, 2026, followed by the start of the new term, where issues previously highlighted on the orders docket, such as the 12-person jury requirement, are scheduled for full merits review.