Earlier this month, the Supreme Court granted an emergency stay in the Staten Island redistricting case, Malliotakis v. Kosinski. The per curiam opinion offered no reasoning, but simply stated that the lower court's ruling was stayed "disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari in this Court, if such a writ is timely sought." But everyone knew that no such petition would ever be filed. As soon as the Court granted the stay, the case was effectively over. There was no way to litigate this case further before the midterm election.
On remand, the parties stipulated that the case would be dismissed with prejudice, each side paying their own fees. I suspect the plaintiffs realized that further litigation would be futile, and would just generate costs, so they called it quits.
I know that Justice Kavanaugh is partial to using the term "interim orders docket." But there was nothing interim here. The Supreme Court's stay was final.
