Appeals court judges publicly admonish Supreme Court justices: 'We're out here flailing'

Source: Politico

09/11/2025 03:12 PM EDT


Frustrated federal appeals court judges publicly wrestled Thursday with how to follow vague “signals” from the Supreme Court contained in tersely worded — and often unexplained — orders handed down on the justices’ emergency docket.

Some judges on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals even questioned whether they still had a role to play or were expected, at least in some cases, to simply reiterate the high court’s orders and leave it at that.

“They’re leaving the circuit courts, the district courts out in limbo,” said Judge James Wynn, an Obama appointee, during oral arguments in a case about the Department of Government Efficiency employees’ access to Social Security data. “We’re out here flailing. … I’m not criticizing the justices. They’re using a vehicle that’s there, but they are telling us nothing. They could easily just give us direction and we would follow it.”

“They cannot get amnesia in the future because they didn’t write an opinion on it. Write an opinion,” Wynn said. “We need to understand why you did it. We judges would just love to hear your reasoning as to why you rule that way. It makes our job easier. We will follow the law. We will follow the Supreme Court, but we’d like to know what it is we are following.”

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/11/supreme-court-emergency-rulings-judges-00558058