The Trump administration's emergency application to stay Judge Indira Talwani's injunction against the Postal Service mail-ballot rule sat over Labor Day without a Supreme Court order in fetched copy. [1] Sunday this paper said timing is the story because North Carolina was already mailing. Monday the mail still moves.

Nebraska Examiner recapped the ask: specially designed envelopes, voter-list checks, and the risk that noncompliant ballots would not be delivered, against Talwani's finding that the rule likely exceeded federal power so close to the midterms. [1] Responses were due on the emergency docket. [1] A due date is not a decision. A holiday is not a stay.

Print the pending application. Do not print a ruling that did not issue. The envelopes in the system are the facts the court has not yet touched.

Talwani's order is still the operative trial-court fact. [1] Sauer's application is still an application. Labor Day did not promote either.

States that already mailed are not waiting for a holiday docket. [1] The envelopes are the clock the justices have not stopped.

Print pending. Do not print stayed. Do not print lifted. [1]

-- SAMUEL CRANE, Washington