[[link removed]] Ms. Memo: This Week in Women's Rights
October 15, 2025
From the ongoing fight for abortion rights and access, to elections, to the drive for the Equal Rights Amendment, there are a multitude of battles to keep up with. In this weekly roundup, find the absolute need-to-know news for feminists.
A New Supreme Court Term Brings Familiar Trouble [[link removed]]
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(Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP Getty Images)
By Mariah A. Lindsay | Supreme Court term previews typically consist of major or anticipated cases that have the potential to meaningfully impact the state of the union. However, as we discover with the help of Michele Goodwin and Steven Vladeck in the newest episode of On the Issues with Michele Goodwin, the story for this upcoming term can be better understood by examining the Trump administration’s ongoing relationship with the federal courts.
The Court’s previous term was marked by the Trump administration’s use of the emergency docket, which is part of the shadow docket. These are expedited orders handed down by the Court, which are often unsigned and lack supportive legal reasoning. In the last year, the Supreme Court ruled on 140 emergency applications, compared to 55 signed opinions in cases that were decided on the merits—a stark increase from years past.
The Court ruled on several important cases via the emergency docket over the last year, including Trump v. Cook, Trump v. Slaughter, Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo, and United States v. Shilling . While the shadow docket consists of orders that operate as temporary rules while the case makes its way through the courts, they have the real consequences for the rights of individuals impacted. In many of these cases, the Court offered deference to the Trump administration’s position, despite the possibility of irreparable harm to the parties involved.
In these cases, Vladeck explains, the balance of equities calculus the Court should be using would not reasonably support the outcomes in these unsigned orders. The Court can be seen to favor the Trump administration in the face of “a million Venezuelans who lose their ability to be protected from arrest, detention, and removal from the country. Transgender service members who get kicked out of the military. Federal employees who are getting fired. [T]hose are imposing immediate, and in many cases, not reparable harms, against the government’s, at best, loosely differentiated irreparable harm, and not being able to carry out some of its policies.”
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This Manufactured Shutdown Threatens Healthcare and Reproductive Freedom [[link removed]] Cuts to Lifesaving Hunger Aid Could Impact Millions: ‘Our President and Congress Think Budget Cuts Will Help People Achieve Self-Sufficiency. They Won’t.’ [[link removed]]
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The Trump Administration Is Paying Children $2,500 to Give Up Their Rights [[link removed]] Hegseth’s Call to ‘Toughness’ Sparks Concerns About Military Sexual Violence [[link removed]]
[link removed] [[link removed]] Tune in for a new episode of Ms. magazine's podcast, On the Issues with Michele Goodwin on
Apple Podcasts [[link removed]] + Spotify [[link removed]] .
This last Supreme Court term was harrowing—from momentous merits decisions about the First Amendment, parental rights, trans rights and more, to the stream of shocking “shadow docket” decisions and its enabling of many of the Trump administration’s executive actions. What does the 2025-2026 term have in store for our nation? What do we think will advance through the Court? What do we think will come up, when it comes to the shadow docket? And perhaps most importantly, how will the Court choose to mediate the Trump administration’s continued onslaught of executive actions?
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