Court Orders Three-Times-a-Week Reporting on Diversity Visa Processing, and Raises Contempt — With the Sept. 30 Deadline Closing

On Sept. 10, 2026, Judge Edward J. Davila issued an Order Enforcing Preliminary Injunction in Medani v. Trump, No. 5:26-cv-06332-EJD (N.D. Cal.), ECF No. 93, after the plaintiffs went back to court to enforce it. The Aug. 28 injunction had temporarily vacated three policies — the State Department's "DV Pause" and "75-Country Pause," and the USCIS Diversity Visa Hold under Policy Memorandum PM-602-0193, which we covered separately since it affects pending adjustment of status applications — and ordered the government, "to the extent practicable and in good faith," to "take all reasonable steps during the remainder of the Diversity Visa fiscal year" to reconsider applications refused solely under those policies and resume ordinary adjudication. On Sept. 8, the plaintiffs filed an emergency motion to enforce that injunction, and the order records that in its opposition brief, DOS "did not deny that it had not scheduled or conducted a single interview, or issued a single Diversity Visa, since the Court's Order." The Department said it had spent the time since the injunction developing guidance, and its counsel told the court a cable went out to consulates and embassies on the morning of the hearing. The court wrote that it was "troubled" both by the failure to schedule a single interview and by DOS's delay in responding, noting that "with each day that passes, hundreds of selectees lose their opportunity to receive a Diversity Visa before the end of the fiscal year" — by the Department's own figures, it adjudicated 6,890 Diversity Visa applications worldwide in September 2025, roughly 230 a day. The court ordered DOS to file a status report by 12:00 p.m. Pacific every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday until the end of the fiscal year, beginning Sept. 14, covering recent compliance steps, interviews scheduled and held, and visas issued and denied. It denied the plaintiffs' other requested relief for now and invited further briefing on whether there has been full compliance and, if not, whether a finding of contempt and what sanctions would be appropriate. The calendar is the whole problem. The court pointed to Goodluck v. Biden, 104 F.4th 920 (D.C. Cir. 2024), which held that a district court lacks authority to order DOS to process and adjudicate diversity visa applications past the fiscal year — while observing that Goodluck expressly did not decide whether contempt sanctions could still issue against the government. The FY-2026 Diversity Visa year ends Sept. 30, 2026, and that date is hard, not a target. As of Sept. 13, 2026, no appeal or stay has been filed. If you are an FY-2026 DV selectee still waiting on a consular interview or an adjustment of status decision, this is the window. Contact us now rather than after the end of the month.