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Emergency application

Returning children across borders

Samantha Estefania Francisco Castro v. Jose Leonardo Brito Guevara

Denied
No. 25A376Stay applicationFiled by a private partyPresented to Justice AlitoFrom United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

What did the Court do?

The Court denied the request on November 13, 2025: the lower court's ruling stays in effect while the appeal continues.

Emergency rulings are temporary and do not decide the underlying case. Justice Sotomayor and Justice Jackson would have ruled the other way.

Filed Ruled 43 days after filing

What's being asked

Samantha Estefania Francisco Castro asks the Supreme Court for a stay (a temporary pause) of the Fifth Circuit ruling for Jose Leonardo Brito Guevara. The application identifies Brito's petition under the Hague Convention and Castro's “well-settled” defense as the dispute. It says the Northern District of Texas denied the petition before the Fifth Circuit ruled for Brito.

What the Court did

The Court refused Castro's emergency request, denying the stay (a temporary pause), but let Brito file extra case papers under seal (not public). It wiped out (vacated) Justice Alito's earlier order temporarily keeping the Fifth Circuit ruling from taking effect. Justices Sotomayor and Jackson would have granted the request; the order gives no full vote and does not decide who wins the underlying dispute.

  • Dissented
  • Vote not published
Dissenting · 2recorded against the Court's order
  1. Sotomayorwould grant
  2. Jacksonwould grant
Vote not published · 7the order does not say how they voted
  1. Roberts
  2. Thomas
  3. Alito
  4. Kagan
  5. Gorsuch
  6. Kavanaugh
  7. Barrett
The order records the positions of 2 of 9 justices. The Court usually does not say how each justice voted on an emergency application, so the rest are shown as not published.
Half of 82 rulings on applications where the Court asked for a response came 10 to 26 days after filing, and the median was 17 days; this one was ruled on 43 days after filing.

What it means

This ruling concerns only emergency relief; it does not decide who wins the underlying case. The Fifth Circuit's ruling is no longer temporarily paused. No related Supreme Court case on the main question is listed, and no argument date is set.

Sources

Facts on this page come from the Supreme Court docket, orders, and opinions for No. 25A376. The answers restate that record in plain words; explainer copy is written from the record and the filings only.

Checked October 4, 2026