In one-line orders today (here and here), the Supreme Court rejected a request by plaintiffs in the Texas redistricting case that the Supreme Court expedite appeals by the State of Texas.
The plaintiffs’ requests would have sped up the cases by having the parties forgo the filing of jurisdiction statements (essentially skipping one step in the process) and setting an expedited briefing schedule. This would have allowed the high court to consider whether to take the cases at its January 5, 2018 conference. …
At this juncture, it is hard to say exactly when briefing will be complete or when the cases will reach the Justices since a lot will depend on whether parties will file briefs early or, conversely in the case of the State of Texas, take its full allotted time to file its papers. It is still possible the cases could reach the Justices by early January or perhaps earlier. But it is possible to see the first round of briefing being dragged out into the new year.
See my earlier: The Supreme Court is in No Hurry to Protect Voters from Gerrymandering, Washington Post (Post Everything), June 28, 2017