UPDATED with statement from Iowa AG Brenna Bird: When all is said and done, the antitrust clash between Paramount Skydance and a dozen blue states may be best articulated by a certain Earth, Wind & Fire tune and remembering a day or two in September.

In a move that could be read as a lifeline or a death knell depending on your POV, the Supreme Court just told California Attorney General Rob Bonta and 11 of his colleagues that they have two weeks to respond to a challenge by Iowa and Montana to their efforts to kneecap the $111 billion ParaBros merger.

“Upon consideration of plaintiffs’ motion for expedited consideration, it is hereby ordered that defendants are allowed until September 25, 2026, to file responses to the motion for leave to file a bill of complaint,” the SCOTUS said in an order Wednesday.

While the edict doesn’t mean the conservative High Court is taking up the red states’ request for Motion For Leave to File a Bill of Complaint, it doesn’t mean they’re not either. Today’s order could suggest the Supreme Court is considering Iowa and Montana’s request for “expedited consideration” in the partisan matter. Still, even if the red states get their way if might be months before any hearing in DC — time that will surely deepen and harden already Mariana Trench-deep animosity between the Melrose lot-based Paramount and the various state capitols.

Also, the September 25 deadline puts the coalition of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Washington in a bit of a bottleneck. The SCOTUS deadline is one day after the dozen blue states are set to argue against the David Ellison-owned Para’s desire for a $1.88 billion bond in front of a federal judge in Oakland. It also comes just a few days before a $7 million a day ticking fee to Warner Bros Discovery shareholders kicks in for Team Ellison. That ticking fee, which is the basis of Paramount’s protest of “extraordinary losses” out of the court case and its March 2, 2027 trial start date, adds up to over $635 million a quarter — so do the math.

Waving off MAGA-chummy Para’s leaked threats of leaving California for a kinder red state and more as “blackmail,” Golden State AG  Bonta, in an August 10 guest column for Deadline, called the long anticipated July 13 filing against Paramount and WBD “a straight up antitrust enforcement case. One that is very cut and dry.” David Ellison and crew disagree, pointing to midterms real politick and CNN ownership as the true cause of the move to stymie a deal that has been approved by “good friend” Donald Trump‘s DOJ, the UK, the EU, Canada, and many more.

In her promise to take the matter to the Supreme Court, Iowa AG Brenna Bird, while seeing no sin in the DOJ white glove sign-off on the merger earlier this year, condemned Bonta and the other 11 AGs on August 25 as “more hostile to this pro-competition merger than Europe and China.”

“Attorney General Bird sued California because California is trying to raise Iowans’ costs,” Bird’s office said in a statement Tuesday to Deadline. “Today’s order for California to respond quickly shows the United States Supreme Court is taking our request seriously. We look forward to California trying to justify why it is so committed to raising prices for streaming and entertainment for Americans across the country.”

Bonta’s staff at the California Department of Justice have not responded to Deadline’s request for comment on the order by the John Roberts-led SCOTUS. Paramount reps also were as quiet as church mice on what could be a defining moment in this big stakes, big egos battle.

Or, to put it in a dance move mode, with a bit of tweak: “Do you remember/the twenty-fifth night of September? ..how the stars stole the night away?”

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Move Paramount to Iowa or Montana and see how that works out.