U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court often uses ‘Friday news dump’ when releasing significant decisions
The U.S. Supreme Court often releases significant decisions at the end of the day on Friday. (Photo by Allison Robbert/The Washington Post)
It’s called a “Friday news dump.” Whether intentionally or not, the U.S. Supreme Court regularly releases significant orders at exactly the time when they’re most likely to get lost in the news cycle—near the end of the day on Friday.
That’s according to an analysis by SCOTUSblog. Kelsey Dallas, the managing editor for SCOTUSblog, examines this phenomenon in a recent article.
She reports that over the past six months, more than half (16) of the high court’s decisions on the 26 applications tracked by SCOTUSblog were released on a Thursday or a Friday, and nearly all of them (22) were released in the afternoon. Twice as many orders were released after 4 p.m. (Eastern time) than were released before noon.
Dallas found that the Supreme Court’s inclination toward late afternoon releases became even more pronounced when she limited her analysis to the 17 applications that were addressed by the full court, rather than a single justice. The orders in eight of these cases were released after 4 p.m., and just two were released in the morning. Eleven came on a Thursday or a Friday.
Dallas said this is significant because “public engagement with the Supreme Court matters, and public engagement is dulled when decisions come late in the day and late in the week. Whether intentionally or not, the court regularly releases significant orders at exactly the time when they’re most likely to get lost in the news cycle.”
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