Judging Fast and Slow

Authors

• Bert I. Huang, Columbia Law SchoolFollow

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

9-2026

Abstract

The federal courts serve as our first responders in conflicts over constitutional rights and the separation of powers. They are called upon to react — fast — to legal challenges to governmental actions. To avert harm before it’s too late, they may rule within weeks, days, or even hours. They have done so in recent cases about free speech, freedom of the press, election law, independent agencies, federal workers, domestic troop deployments, spending and taxation, due process, search and seizure, and more.

The trial judges and appeals courts of the federal judiciary have long been tasked with this kind of rapid response. Lately, the Supreme Court has also joined the fray, intervening in high-profile cases through interim orders on its emergency docket.

Disciplines

Civil Procedure | Constitutional Law | Law

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Comments

 File includes extracted endnotes (p. 448-449).

Recommended Citation

Bert I. Huang, Judging Fast and Slow, Democracy's Challenges: 100 Ideas, Bob Bauer, Richard Pildes, Rosa Po & Samuel Issacharoff (Eds.), NYU Press (2026).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/4882