The Federal Reserve and parties that support the Fed’s position on the Durbin Amendment will have until Oct. 21 to submit briefs to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, according to an expedited schedule the appeals court laid out late last week.

The merchants and groups that support their push for lower interchange caps will have until Nov. 20 to file briefs supporting that position.

In the meantime, Judge Richard Leon issued a stay on his requirement that the Fed replace the debit interchange rule he overturned on July 31.

Both the defendant and plaintiffs had requested expected action on the case, known as NACS v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, last Thursday. The court approved that request on the very same day.

Merchants argued that every day the existing final rule is left in place potentially causes retailers "irreparable injury," while the Fed asserted that expedited treatment is necessary because vacating the existing rule before a resolution of the appeal "would eliminate the existing regulatory limits on the amount of fees that merchants can be required to pay in connection with each debit card transaction subject to the rule and thus allow the unrestrained imposition of fees by card networks and issuers on the businesses that accept debit cards-precisely the practice that the statute sought to prevent." 

The Credit Union National Association, which expects to join a myriad of other financial institutions in filing an amicus brief supporting the Fed, said in a statement that based on this schedule, the court would likely hear oral arguments next spring with a decision coming possibly as soon as next summer.