President Trump is pushing his years-long legal fight against Hillary Clinton all the way to the Supreme Court, seeking to overturn an appeals court ruling that rejected his conspiracy claims and hit him with nearly $1 million in sanctions.
Justice Clarence Thomas granted Trump an extension this week to file a formal petition asking the high court to take up the case. Trump now has until September 9 to submit his arguments in Trump v. Clinton, a lawsuit rooted in allegations that Clinton and others fabricated the narrative that his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.
The extension is a procedural step, not a ruling on the merits. Thomas handles routine administrative requests from the circuit involved, and granting extra time to file a petition carries no signal about how the full court might view the case. It takes four justices to agree to hear a petition before any case gets a full hearing.