The Supreme Court has declined to review Donald Trump’s effort to undo the civil verdict in favor of writer E. Jean Carroll, leaving intact the $5 million judgment entered after a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation. The denial leaves the Second Circuit’s decision in place and effectively ends this round of appellate review in one of the most closely watched personal-liability cases involving a president.

The petition came in Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, Petitioner v. E. Jean Carroll, following appellate proceedings that preserved the trial result.

More than 30 former federal judges have asked a federal judge in Florida to examine whether the administration’s reported $1.8 billion settlement resolving President Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS may constitute a “fraud on the court,” escalating what had appeared to be a closed dispute into a potentially significant fight over judicial integrity and executive-branch litigation conduct.

The filing is notable not because it decides anything on the merits, but because of who is making the request and what doctrine they are invoking.