Friday, July 3 — the whispers from the bench

0:00 The Supreme Court issued a ruling last month that deported a person without giving a single reason. That's not an opinion — it's an order, unsigned, unexplained, and carrying the full weight of law.

0:14 Today, we start with the Court — because two things happened there, one new and one recent, that together tell a story about who's making the real decisions in Washington, and how much of it you get to see.

0:29 First: the shadow docket. You've heard the term.

0:34 It's the Court's way of issuing orders — often on life-or-death matters — without a written opinion, without a named author, without any reasoning for lower courts or the public to examine. The June 23rd order in DHS v.

0:49 D.V.D. is a case in point: the government deported someone, and the Court let it happen in the dark. No explanation. No precedent. Just a result. That's not a stylistic choice. It means Congress can't write a fix.

1:06 Lower courts can't apply the rule. Citizens can't hold anyone accountable. And it's happening more and more.

1:14 Now, a correction: earlier reporting suggested the SCERT Act — a transparency bill in the last Congress — would have forced the Court to write signed opinions in every case. That's not accurate.

1:27 The bill focused on ethics rules, a code of conduct, and disclosure; it didn't mandate reasoning for every order. And the Court has not ended birthright citizenship — that fight is still in the lower courts.

1:42 But the shadow-docket trend is real, and it's accelerating, and it matters precisely because it's invisible.

1:51 Second blow from the bench: the Court has also been quietly gutting the Federal Trade Commission's ability to protect consumers.

2:00 In AMG Capital Management, back in 2021, the Court ruled 9–0 that the FTC can no longer force companies to give back money they stole — what's called disgorgement.

2:14 The case involved Scott Tucker, a payday lending mogul who bilked people out of hundreds of millions. The Court said the law only lets the agency get an injunction — stop the conduct — but not recover the money.

2:29 So victims stay empty-handed, and the FTC's biggest enforcement tool is gone.

2:36 Then, in 2023, the Court ruled again — unanimously — that companies can challenge the FTC's very structure in federal court right away, before any hearing.

2:48 That opens the door to constitutional attacks on the agency's independence. Two unanimous rulings, each one carving away what felt like settled power.

2:59 Across the Atlantic, Russia's chief of staff Gerasimov announced that Russian forces struck 55 defense factories and ten airfields in Ukraine in June, claiming they've degraded Ukraine's long-range strike capability.

3:15 The source is state-controlled RT. There's no independent verification. This is a Kremlin claim, made for a domestic and diplomatic audience — to suggest that Western weapons aren't making a difference.

3:29 It's worth noting, not because it's a fact, but because it's part of a story the U.S. government has to decide how to answer, with the next round of aid still unsettled. And finally, a note on what we're not running.

3:44 There was an unsubstantiated claim that ICE arrested 10,000 people in five days in late June. No source in our material supports that figure. No ICE press release. No news report. No official data.

3:59 We can't analyze what we can't verify — so we're not running it. The same goes for a preview article about a future NATO summit: no policy action, no executive order, no change in posture. That's not a story.

4:16 We only cover what actually happened. So today's bottom line: The Supreme Court is making law in the dark, and the FTC's enforcement toolbox is half empty. That's the story.

4:29 Meanwhile, the watch on Project 2025 continues. We've read, reframed, and logged 147 of its actions so far — a piece at a time. Across the whole arc, 1,083 distinct actions are now on the record and mapped.

4:46 We don't pretend to have reversed anything. We watch and we document, because the only way to see where this is going is to keep track of every step.

4:56 Next week, the House Judiciary Committee is expected to mark up a bill that would limit public access to Supreme Court rulings.

5:04 The FTC is expected to propose a new rule targeting junk fees, but it will likely face immediate legal challenge under the AMG framework.

5:14 And the Senate is still debating whether to move forward on additional Ukraine aid, with a key vote expected before the August recess. That's what we know today. Tomorrow, we'll know more.

5:26 This is Gus Calloway, signing off. Take care of each other out there.