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The order granting an administrative stay was issued by Alison Nathan. Nathan was first appointed to the US District Court for the Southern DIstrict of New York by President Obama, for whom she previously had served as associate White House Counsel. She served on the District Court for over ten years before President Biden nominated her to fill a vacancy on the Second Circuit in November 2021. Republicans held up her confirmation, but after Biden renominated her in January 2022, she finally was confirmed on essentially a party-line vote in March 2022.

If she had outright denied the administration's stay request, they probably could and would have taken that decision to the Supreme Court. By referring the matter to a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit, she sets the stage -- hopefully -- for a strong, well reasoned decision denying the stay that would be harder for the Supreme Court to overturn.