My last post on the Corporate Transparency Act (the “CTA”) was just more than a month ago. What a difference a month makes! It seemed like every time I sat down to write an update, something changed . . . . As I head off to the Association of American Law Schools annual meeting in San Francisco, I thought I would offer a quick set of links for you to enjoy if you want to briefly catch up. You can find a nice summary here. But the essence is as follows.

Following the nationwide injunction prohibiting enforcement of the CTA early last month, the U.S. government appealed. On December 23, a motions panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted the government’s emergency motion for a stay pending appeal. The court’s order also expedited the appeal to the next available oral argument panel. On December 26–a mere three days later, the Fifth Circuit vacated that stay, reviving, in effect, the U.S. District Court’s nationwide injunction against the government’s enforcement of the CTA. Got that? (Feel free to read it again.)

On December 31 (happy new year!), the U.S. Solicitor General applied to the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the District Court’s injunction in full or in part (as it affects those other than the plaintiffs in the action) and effectively requested that the Court grant certiorari before the Fifth Circuit reaches its judgment as to whether the District Court had the authority to order a universal injunction. The Court has ordered a response by 4:00 p.m. on Friday.

I will not bore or entertain you with the details of what all this back–and-forth means for filers who had not yet complied with their CTA filing obligations. A series of American Bar Association listserv message strings attests to some complexity in threading that needle–and in giving competent and useful counsel to clients on the same. (FinCEN’s website offers guidance that continues to be updated.) Instead, I will just advise that folks keep eyes and ears open as things continue to unfold. And I will endeavor to offer more here as time allows (if I can keep up).