Roe. Brown. Obergefell. Dobbs. These Supreme Court decisions are the ones that make headlines, and eventually history books. But today, the vast majority of the Court's work actually happens out of the public eye, on what's become known as the shadow docket. The story of that transformation spans more than a century, and doesn't fall neatly along partisan lines. Today, thanks to our friends at NPR's history podcast Throughline: how the so-called court of last resort has gained more and more power over American policy, and why the debates we don't see are often more important than the ones we do.

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