McCarthy seems to think Judge Ali backed down?

Judge Amir Ali — despite no small amount of chest-beating suggesting otherwise — has modified his demands on what the administration must pay.

Judge Amir Ali — despite no small amount of chest-beating suggesting otherwise — has modified his demands on what the administration must pay. His new directive, issued on Monday in a 48-page opinion and order, is in line with what the State Department has already agreed to pay, at a pace it can tolerate.

So rather than continue to order that the Administration pay disputed claims, he is basically ordering them to pay the claims that they have already agreed to pay. Not sure what sense this makes, other than I don't believe that Ali wants his latest order appealed for a second go around. It was clear that at least two of the USSC Justices were willing to give Ali a little room to modify this, which is apparently what he did. Given the moving time-table, it seems nearly certain that no additional orders are going to be barked at the Administration in the near future.

It seems that McCarthy is one of the few who actually recognized that Ali did the opposite of what some thought he would do. The fear was that he would be emboldened by the USSC decision and push things even further. But rather he appears to be walking on eggshells a bit with his latest ruling. Perhaps this will go quietly into the night.

All that being said, I still hate this sort of a decision by the Roberts court. Obviously this judge was overplaying his hand. Rather than allow him a second opportunity to temper his ruling, I would have preferred that the USSC make a point and slap his original order down. You know, as the four conservatives wanted.