The docket moved. The deadline did not.

Thursday's paper said Hannah Natanson's Fourth Circuit appeal clock runs out Monday, because Judge Anthony Trenga's May 4 Privacy Protection Act order gave the Justice Department fourteen days to notice an appeal. CourtListener now shows a May 13 status conference and May 14 docket activity. [1] That is not the filing that matters.

The filing that matters would be a notice of appeal. Trenga's order kept the government from searching Natanson's seized devices under its proposed protocol and left the court-led review structure in place. [2] The Washington Post has reported the underlying search of its reporter's home and devices as part of the broader leak-investigation fight. [3]

The institutional distinction is simple. A status conference manages a case. A notice of appeal chooses a precedent fight. If DOJ files by Monday, the Fourth Circuit gets a chance to define how the Privacy Protection Act applies to reporter devices in leak cases. If it does not, Trenga's district ruling remains the working law for the next Natanson-like warrant.

The government has one more business day to show what it wants. The docket can fill with housekeeping forever. The appeal clock is the only part with teeth.

-- SAMUEL CRANE, Washington