The Quality of Legal Reporting is not Straineth

NEWS: Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has put a stay on the DC Circuit order requiring Mazars to turn over Trump's financial docs to the House while it considers a cert petition from the president's personal lawyers. pic.twitter.com/VnAStx9mQk

— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) November 18, 2019

But it does strain human understanding, as reporters usually don't understand what they are reporting.

NPR earlier today, in headlines (probably not preserved for perpetuity on-line, IOW), said Roberts had granted a "permanent stay."  The Chief Justice did no such thing.

A lot of the #SCOTUS headlines are overstating what the Chief Justice did today.

An “administrative” stay is an uncontroversial procedural step that preserves the status quo only until the Justices can vote on the full request to freeze the subpoena pending appeal—prob. Friday. https://t.co/J26GtBIcKN

— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) November 18, 2019

The stay is only good until Thursday, to give the other party (House Dems, in this case) a chance to provide arguments against a stay.  A full stay until arguments can be made before the Court requires 5 justices, as does any decision to take the case for argument.

Nothing happened today, in other words.  Certainly nothing "permanent."