The US Supreme Court will allow Texas’s six-week abortion ban to remain in effect for now, with a majority of the justices rejecting the Justice Department’s push to immediately pause enforcement of the law while constitutional challenges work through the lower courts.

The order, which Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented from, leaves intact a decision earlier this month by a federal appeals court that revived the law, SB 8, two days after a judge in Austin blocked it. It means that healthcare providers in Texas will remain barred from performing nearly all abortions, at the risk of facing a civil lawsuit carrying thousands of dollars in potential penalties; anyone suspected of helping a pregnant person obtain an abortion can also be sued.

The court will hear arguments on Nov. 1 on the question of whether the Justice Department and abortion providers can sue Texas and whether a lower court can enter an order that blocks state court judges and clerks, private individuals, and any other state actors from taking steps to enforce the law.

The justices did not take up the question of whether SB 8 is constitutional, although these cases could shed light on how they’re thinking about the question and more broadly about the court’s role in protecting abortion access nationwide. In December, the court is set to hear arguments in a separate case about whether the justices should revisit longstanding precedent that prohibits states from passing laws that ban abortion before a fetus is considered “viable” — meaning it can survive outside the womb — a point that typically occurs around week 24 of a pregnancy.