Did the Supreme Court Send the Case Back to the Court of Appeals?

It's extremely unusual for the court of appeal to consider a motion for certification at this stage. At no previous point, either in the court of appeals or the united states supreme court, did the texas officials press the courts to certify a question to the texas supreme court. So in that light, it feels like, and it looks like, at least to one of the judges, as an unfair dilatory tactic. If the state officials actually had wanted the the supreme court to weigh in and thought that was necessary to the court's resolution of these cases, they could have requested that rlier.