TheCorporateCounsel.net

Yesterday, with one short paragraph, SCOTUS granted a stay of the preliminary injunction the Eastern District of Texas issued in December that prohibited the government from enforcing the CTA while litigation is pending in the 5th Circuit. If you were paying attention over the holidays, you probably remember that this is the second stay of the injunction — in late December, the 5th Circuit granted the DOJ’s request for a stay, which was then quickly vacated by a 5th Circuit merits panel.

The SCOTUS blog reports further that the order itself is actually three paragraphs. Each in one paragraph, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, and Justice Neil Gorsuch concurred. Justice Jackson argued there was no real emergency and pointed to the fact that the 5th Circuit has an expedited briefing schedule. Justice Gorsuch preferred that SCOTUS weigh in now on the propriety of “universal injunctions”—which prohibit the government from enforcing a law anywhere in the country—versus a limited injunction—which would only apply to litigants.

But the WSJ reports that a second nationwide injunction, which was issued just recently on January 7 (also by the Eastern District of Texas) in a separate case challenging the CTA, remains in place. I assume FinCEN will make a statement and update its BOI site in the near future — also because we’ve passed the January 13 extended deadline FinCEN had previously announced.

If you’re tracking this closely and want updates from FinCEN directly in your inbox, you can sign up here. (But know that we’ll keep posting about this drama!)

– Meredith Ervine