>> reporter: ultimately there's a lot to parse here but the 9th circuit court of appeals can make a decision and then if the doj or the other side doesn't like it it can go all the way up to the supreme court and it could happen fairly quickly, couldn't it? this is not something that's going to take years or months necessarily. >> supreme court has a whole system in place again for emergency orders. justice kennedy is the circuit justice for this circuit. you would presumably file papers with him asking for an emergency order to vacate the 9th circuit's opinion or vacate the stay in seattle. just kennedy normally would either decide that himself or more likely refer it to the entire court. and again, we only have eight justices. so if they tie 4-4, then everything has been done below will stay in place. that process can happen pretty quickly, but they're going to have to say there's irreparable harm. in other words, if there's no reason for it to happen that quickly, then it's not going to happen that quickly. >> and then in the end as you heard from rory here, it will end up back in that court likely