Thirteen weeks have passed since Judge Anthony Trenga ruled on February 24 that the FBI's search of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson's home violated the Privacy Protection Act. DOJ filed an April 9 motion asking the court to overturn the ruling. No Fourth Circuit notice of appeal has surfaced. [1]

The paper's Friday brief on the same docket named the position: a bounded negative-evidence story that holds until another filing lands. The Saturday morning is the same brief by one day. The federal interlocutory-appeal window for civil cases involving the United States is sixty days, and it expired April 25. The April 9 motion to reconsider toggles a different procedural track — if the district court denies it, the appellate clock resets from that denial; if the district court does not rule, the matter sits in motions-pending status without a docketed next step. [1]

The structural pairing the paper has been keeping is with the Disney FCC clock. Both produce institutional pressure on speech without a courtroom confrontation. A reporter cannot work without her seized devices. A network operates inside a regulator's review window. Neither story advances without a document, and both clocks reward delay. The Disney window closes Thursday. The Natanson docket reaches Week Thirteen Saturday. Both produced the same absence this week. [1]

-- ANNA WEBER, Berlin