The Daily Fuckup

Donald Trump’s request to freeze the federal election-interference case was still waiting on the Supreme Court on Feb. 17, 2024. The court had not ruled on his application to stay the D.C. Circuit’s mandate, and no new order had changed the posture of the case by the edition date.

The docket shows the sequence. Trump filed both an application for a stay and a petition for certiorari on Feb. 12. The Chief Justice asked the United States to respond on Feb. 13. The government filed its response on Feb. 14, and Trump submitted his reply on Feb. 15. By Feb. 17, the stay application was still pending, and the court had not yet taken further action.

That mattered because the filing was aimed at slowing the case while Trump pressed his immunity argument. He has argued that former presidents cannot be prosecuted for official acts carried out in office. Prosecutors have said the Constitution does not create blanket criminal immunity for a former president. The lower court had already rejected Trump’s immunity claim, and the Supreme Court had not yet said whether it would hear the issue at all.

What had happened later was still in the future on Feb. 17. The Supreme Court would not refer the stay application to the full court, grant certiorari, and keep the mandate on hold until Feb. 28, 2024. On the edition date, though, the only accurate takeaway was narrower: Trump was still waiting, and the court had not yet answered him.