Here’s a Supreme Court development that I think slipped past even the keen eyes of the folks at SCOTUSBlog and How Appealing.
On February 3, 2010, I noted an interesting ruling in the challenge to the matching funds provision of Arizona’s public financing law. A federal district court in Arizona had issued a preliminary injunction barring the state from enforcing this aspect of the Arizona law. But a Ninth Circuit panel imposed a stay of that order, at least until a merits panel hears the appeal of the preliminary injunction. Judge Bea issued an impassioned dissent from the stay order, contending that the ruling was inconsistent with the Supreme Court’s decision in FEC v. Davis.
Tonight I noticed on the Ninth Circuit’s website that on Tuesday Justice Kennedy, as Circuit Justice, issued this order: “The application to vacate the stay presented to Justice Kennedy and by him referred to the Court is denied. Denial is without prejudice to a renewed application on June 1, 2010, or when the Court of Appeals has issued its decision on the merits of the case, whichever date is earlier.”
Maybe the Justice is a bit gun-shy about getting involved in another high profile campaign finance case so soon after CU.
UPDATE: Jeff Patch sends along the following thoughts about a different reason for the delay, which make sense to me:

You may be right that Justice Kennedy is gun-shy about getting involved in another high profile campaign finance case, but I think there’s a more likely explanation.
SCOTUSblog or How Appealing may not have reported it, but the Arizona press noted that matching funds won’t be disbursed until late June, so there’s no imminent need for the Justices to void the stay. If the 9th Circuit hasn’t resolved the matter by June 1, Goldwater will certainly file another application to vacate the stay–and I’d assume the Justices would be much more amenable then.

Further update: The Ninth Circuit has set argument in the case for April 12.