Overview
- The New York Times, which published 16 pages of 2016 memos over the weekend, verified internal exchanges that reveal five days of debate over the stay that blocked the Obama-era Clean Power Plan.
- The papers depict Chief Justice John Roberts urging a swift stay before any appeals court ruling, arguing the EPA rule risked imposing unlawful burdens on power companies.
- To support urgency, Roberts cited a 2014 cost study by NERA Economic Consulting that was prepared for coal and fuel industry groups, a reliance Justice Sonia Sotomayor called a likely biased view in her memo.
- The 2016 order is widely linked to the rise of the modern shadow docket, a fast track for emergency orders with scant explanation, though some scholars say the memos reflect long‑standing stay standards.
- The leak has fueled partisan reactions and fresh concern over court secrecy, following the 2022 Dobbs draft breach and new 2024 staff nondisclosure rules, with the source still unknown and one Sotomayor memo copy noted as anomalous.