After 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 6, federal district court Judge John McConnell issued an order requiring the federal government to transfer fund from a school lunch program to pay for SNAP benefits. One might have expected the federal government to take an immediate appeal--this ruling from this particular judge was not unexpected. However, the Department of Justice did not file a brief right that evening. Rather, the brief was filed the morning of Friday, November 7. Why didn't the government file an immediate appeal? The Solicitor General's emergency application to the Supreme Court offered this explanation:
Nonetheless, after 5 p.m. on November 6 (yesterday), the district court directed USDA to pay the full November allotment by November 7 (today). . .
The government filed an emergency stay motion as soon as it was possible to file in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which was this morning, and requested a ruling by 4 p.m. The First Circuit requested a response due by noon, but as of now, has not yet ruled on the government's motion.
According to Attorney General Pam Bondi, the government was unable to file an emergency appeal to the Fifth Circuit until the following morning because the First Circuit clerk's office would not accept the filing. In a thread, Bondi laid out the chronology.
