As we continue to wait for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit to issue a ruling regarding the league’s motion to stay the order lifting the lockout until the ruling can be reviewed, the Clerk of the Court tells USA Today that there possibly will be no ruling on the pending motion.
“I don’t have any indication whether there is going to be any further ruling on the motion for a stay,” Michael Gans told Gary Mihoces. Gans also said the motion for a stay is “still pending,” and that the “court may rule and the court may not” rule on the motion.
Last Friday, the panel that will hear the appeal voted 2-1 to grant the league’s motion for a temporary stay, while considering the motion for a stay through the resolution of the appeal. Since separate briefs were submitted on the question of whether a stay will be granted, including a final brief from the NFL on Monday, May 2, it’s reasonable to expect that a ruling on the motion will at some point be made. Then again, this is one of the basic realities of the court system. Very often, courts do what they want to do when they want to do it, without giving any explanation or notice.