The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a number of cases that will have an unusually profound impact on controversial social policy questions during its 2021-2022 term.  The Court’s docket, however, also includes cases addressing profoundly important financial and economic issues that directly affect the ability of every American to earn, save, invest, and spend their money without being victimized by predatory businesses and financial firms. These cases also have the potential to either erode or shore up the regulatory framework that helps stabilize our financial system and prevent financial crises like the one that overwhelmed our economy beginning in 2008.

The Court will address issues such as the authority of the financial regulators to protect the public, the scope of the laws written to combat financial fraud and promote financial stability, and the seemingly technical yet often dispositive requirements of “standing”—who can even set foot in a federal court to have their grievances heard. And a number of the cases on the Court’s docket will address the ability of investors, consumers, and small businesses wronged by predatory business practices to seek meaningful recovery in court, not just a token award from an arbitration panel in an amount that rarely comes close to full compensation for the damages sustained. These financial and economic cases have been the focus of Better Markets’ Supreme Court coverage in a series of reports we have issued over the last several years.

In this new Report, we continue our tradition of highlighting the importance of the Court’s decisions, the ideologies of its Justices, and the transparency of its operations. Keying off of our July report summarizing the Court’s 2020-2021 session, we examine the following topics:

• The Court’s Role: We review the types of financial issues brought before the Court that can make an enormous difference in Americans’ economic lives;
• The Cases: We recap the Court’s decisions on financial regulation from the prior term, flag key cases the Court will decide in the months ahead, and list the noteworthy and still-pending petitions for certiorari (“cert.”) that, if granted, will generate yet more important decisions;
• The Justices: We look back on Justice Kavanaugh’s votes and opinions in financial and economic cases over three full terms; and
• The Transparency Challenges: We briefly update some of the issues we raised in our July report concerning the transparency challenges the Court faces, with a focus on the “shadow docket.”