States and civic groups urged the Supreme Court to leave in place an order blocking a Trump administration move on mail ballots. [1] SCOTUSblog filed the urging. [1] This paper has carried the ask as pending since the Labor Day ballot file. Monday has no order, no stay, and no granted review in fetched copy.

Pending is not a ruling. Silence from One First Street is not a decided case, and an urging is not a vote of the justices. The administration's third-appeal posture from earlier in September remains the posture.

Court watchers read every quiet Monday as a shadow-docket signal. SCOTUSblog reads it as a Monday with no order. This desk sides with the blog: pending stays pending until the Court says otherwise. The underlying fight is over federal conditions on state-run mail voting, and the states asking to keep the block in place span both parties' attorneys general. A ruling, when it comes, will land weeks before ballots are printed, which is why the ask is urgent and the silence is loud.

Pending stays pending until the Court says otherwise. Both parties' attorneys general asked to keep the block. Silence is loud because ballots print soon.

One First Street issued nothing on the mail-ballot block. The states' ask still sits where Labor Day left it: pending, not granted, not denied. Attorneys general from both parties want the existing order left alone. Ballots will be printed on a printer's calendar, not on a feed's.
Pending remains the honest word on Monday. Ballots print on a printer's calendar. One First Street issued no order.

-- SAMUEL CRANE, Washington