No. 26A305·Stay application·Filed by the federal government·Presented to Justice Jackson·From United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
What did the Court do?
The Court denied the request on September 14, 2026: the lower court's ruling stays in effect while the appeal continues.
Emergency rulings are temporary and do not decide the underlying case. Justice Alito and Justice Thomas would have ruled the other way.
Filed · Ruled · 8 days after filing
What's being asked
The federal government asks the Supreme Court for a temporary pause (stay) of an order from the federal court for the District of Massachusetts. That preliminary injunction (an early court order requiring something or stopping it) concerns a Postal Service rule. The government says the rule is lawful; the states and League of Women Voters groups challenge it. The application does not explain what the rule does.
What the Court did
The Court refused the government's request for a temporary pause (stay), denying its application. The Court said the government is unlikely to win on the main question and that emergency factors do not favor a pause. Justice Kavanaugh agreed with the result for different reasons (concurred); Justices Alito and Thomas disagreed (dissented).
Barrett
Gorsuch
Sotomayor
Thomas: Dissented, wrote an opinion
Chief Justice Roberts
Alito: Dissented, wrote an opinion
Kagan
Kavanaugh: Concurred, wrote an opinion
Jackson
Concurred in a separate opinion
Dissented
Wrote separately
Vote not published
Concurring · 1agreed with the result, wrote separately
The order records the positions of 3 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.
Filing60 days
Half of 300 rulings on applications decided without a response came 8 to 28 days after filing, and the median was 14 days; this one was ruled on 8 days after filing.
What it means
This emergency ruling is temporary and does not decide who wins the underlying dispute. The District of Massachusetts injunction remains in place while the case continues in the First Circuit. No related Supreme Court case is listed, and the Court set no argument on this application.
Facts on this page come from the Supreme Court docket, orders, and opinions for No. 26A305. The answers restate that record in plain words; explainer copy is written from the record and the filings only.