Overview
In the ongoing saga of New York State's attempt to prevent a citizenship question from being added to the 2020 Census, Judge Furman has yet again denied an attempt to stay the proceedings pending review by the U.S. Supreme Court. The request yesterday came on the heels of a request just before the trial in the case (see our coverage here). According to the opinion, the present request was the twelfth time in as many weeks that the defendants had asked the district court, the Second Circuit, or the Supreme Court to stay the case, a number Judge Furman referred to as "astonishing."
Judge Furman found that, given the trial in the case was already complete, defendants had little ground to stand on in asking for a stay:
Tellingly, this time, Defendants do not even attempt to argue that they are entitled to the extraordinary relief of a stay of all proceedings under the traditional factors. That is not surprising, as Defendants cannot satisfy any of the four factors, substantially for the reasons set forth in Plaintiffs’ opposition to the motion, filed earlier today. Among other things, as the Court stressed last time, the traditional test requires that Defendants show they would suffer “irreparable harm” absent a stay. Defendants could not make that showing before trial, and they certainly cannot make it now. In fact, the words “harm” and “injury” do not appear anywhere in their motion. That is for good reason, as the notion that they — or anyone else — would suffer “irreparable harm” without a stay is laughable. The only “harm” Defendants suffer from denial of a stay is that they would be required to complete and file their post-trial submissions (which are due tomorrow and, presumably, almost done), and to appear for oral argument on November 27, 2018. As the Court has noted before, however, “‘[m]ere litigation expense, even substantial and unrecoupable cost, does not constitute irreparable injury.’”Our full coverage of the case is here.