Supposedly the move is intended to give the court time to review the case, but obviously the judge feels there’s merit to the argument. So, for the moment, the Obama Administration’s politically-motivated moratorium on offshore drilling has been blocked.

Update: Okay, here’s the full article.  Federal judge Martin Feldman:

Several companies that ferry people and supplies and provide other services to offshore drilling rigs asked U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman in New Orleans to overturn the moratorium, arguing it was arbitrarily imposed.

Feldman agreed, saying in his ruling that the Interior Department failed to provide adequate reasoning for the moratorium. He said it seemed to assume that because one rig failed, all companies and rigs doing deepwater drilling pose an imminent danger.

“An invalid agency decision to suspend drilling of wells in depths of over 500 feet simply cannot justify the immeasurable effect on the plaintiffs, the local economy, the Gulf region, and the critical present-day aspect of the availability of domestic energy in this country,” Feldman wrote.

Translation: You can’t arbitrarily destroy the Gulf economy because you assume that one rig failing means all rigs from all companies pose an immediate risk.

The Obama Administration is promising an appeal. But according to one commenter at Hot Air, the SCOTUS justice in charge of hearing emergency appeals for the Fifth Circuit (the relevant jurisdiction) is Antonin Scalia. Awesome.