The State Department asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on October 23 to put the 2027 Diversity Visa injunction on hold while its appeal goes forward. The court has not ruled, and it has set a short clock: the plaintiff, Red Eagle Law, L.C., must file a response to what the court called “the emergency motion for a stay pending appeal” by 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time on Monday, October 26, 2026.
Both filings appeared on the appellate docket on October 23: a motion to stay the lower court’s order, and an emergency motion carrying a Circuit Rule 27-3 certificate, under No. 26-6943. The public docket shows only the titles of the two filings, not their contents, because the documents themselves are not available free through the court’s online docket. In a one-paragraph order entered that night, the Ninth Circuit directed Red Eagle Law to answer by the Monday deadline. As of midday Pacific on October 26, no response and no ruling had been filed.
What is at stake are the dates the district court set in Red Eagle Law, L.C. v. Rubio, No. 3:26-cv-04738-JO-VET. Judge Jinsook Ohta’s amended injunction of October 21 requires the State Department to announce the fiscal year 2027 diversity visa registration period on its visas-news page by midnight Eastern on October 29, to open registration by midnight Eastern on November 1 for thirty days, and to notify selectees by midnight Eastern on December 3. A stay from the Ninth Circuit would lift those obligations while the appeal is pending; without one, they stand.
The request follows two losses in the trial court. On October 21 Judge Ohta denied the department’s motion to stay her own injunction, writing that a stay “would effectively cancel the congressionally mandated 2027 Diversity Visa Program,” and rejected the argument that the December deadline for notifying winners would prevent meaningful appellate review. The government also filed its answer to the complaint in the district court on October 23, so the case will go on either way. Under the Ninth Circuit’s scheduling notice, the department’s opening brief is due November 17, Red Eagle Law’s answering brief December 15, and both sides’ corporate disclosure statements November 3.
Nothing in the stay fight moves employment-based cutoff dates. The Diversity Visa program is a separate pool of up to 55,000 visas a year, drawn by random selection from natives of countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States, and its numbers are not taken from the EB-1, EB-2 or EB-3 categories. What the Ninth Circuit decides is whether the 2027 drawing can be held on the timetable the district court imposed, or waits until the appeal is resolved. The announcement required by October 29 is three days away.
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