It temporarily stopped an election in Georgia on Friday, reviving the ruling from a federal judge that said that the state had disadvantaged black voters in violation of the Voting Rights Act, The New York Times reported.

In an unsigned order without noted dissents, the justices wrote that an appeals court's reason for staying the judge's ruling — that it had come too close to the election in November — was flawed because state officials had told the judge that there was enough time to make the required adjustments. The Supreme Court vacated the stay and returned the case to the appeals court for reconsideration.

The court's order was an exception to what legal experts say is a growing trend: a near-categorical ban on late changes to state election procedures even when those changes have been ruled necessary to address illegal infringements of the right to vote. But the exception was based on an unusual concession from state officials and therefore may not have larger implications.