As of Oct. 1, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court had fully granted 19 of the Donald Trump (R) administration’s emergency applications for intervention in lower court cases, 83% of the decided emergency applications that the administration filed. The court granted in part and denied in part two applications, denied one application, and denied one other application as moot.

Excluding withdrawn applications, the Trump administration has filed 26 emergency applications with the Supreme Court, challenging lower court orders against the administration’s actions. In addition to the 23 decided applications, three others are currently pending before the court. The largest topic category of these applications is immigration and citizenship, with 10 cases, and the second largest is termination of federal employees with seven. See the chart below for a full breakdown of the Trump administration’s emergency applications by topic.

The second Trump administration has filed more emergency applications (28, including withdrawn applications) than the Bush, Obama, and Biden administrations combined (27). During Trump’s first term, his administration filed 41 emergency applications with the court.

The emergency docket, also referred to as the shadow docket or the non-merits docket, is made up of applications for immediate intervention from the Supreme Court in cases that have not fully progressed through the ordinary procedures required for the Supreme Court to issue a regular opinion in a case. The court usually resolves applications in unsigned orders with no oral argument.

Read more about Supreme Court orders related to the Trump administration here: