My instincts tell me you are likely correct that Silver will not suddenly decide that the MOU has unquestionably ripened the DFR claim. However, judges are wildly capricious at times so making predictions at this point before the initial hearing is not based on any reasoned position. The fact that this matter is before her once again within months of the last ruling while her DJ ruling is being appealed to the Ninth shows just how ineffective the whole deferral on ripeness has been. It should be quite clear to her that all parties, which now includes AMR and the UCC, want to see judicial relief of this matter based on the merits - well all parties except USAPA that is.
The irony is that the laws in this nation are moving more and more towards criminalizing free speech so that a person can be arrested for potentially being a terrorist, foreign or domestic; we arrest and expel kids for saying they wish a classmate or teacher were dead; heck we even brining a gun shaped cookie to school - all of which are examples of people doing nothing to harm another person but rather thinking or speaking in a manner that they would like to. Then we have USAPA and the Ninth. USAPA openly declares under oath that they have no intention of implementing the NIC because they say it unjustly favors the west pilots so they have every intention of using a list that harms the west relative to the NIC and the Ninth says, we can't decide if there will be harm to the west pilots until it actually occurs. What further evidence is needed that USAPA will, without judicial intervention, harm the west in violation of its DFR? Perhaps the Company's cogent arguments to this effect will persuade her where she was not able to see that the last time. Certainly by her own words she desired to do more that last time, but felt she was unable to do so because of the constraints placed on her by the Ninth's previous ruling. Seems unlikely, but it it's certainly not beyond reason to suspect that she might. We will see what happens in the 14th.