U.S. District Judge Liles Burke Tuesday once again put a hold on a lawsuit challenging Alabama’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors while the U.S. Supreme Court mulls a similar case.

In a three-page order, Burke said the hold was necessary “given the risk that the Supreme Court may well change the governing standard of review.”

That lawsuit, United States v. Skrmetti, deals with whether a Tennessee law which prohibits all gender-affirming medical treatments for minors violates the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.

The court added the lawsuit to its 2024-25 docket last month. A decision could come in June 2025.

The plaintiffs in the Alabama case and the Justice Department sought a stay after the Supreme Court took up the Tennessee case.

A stay was always possible, Burke stated last December, when the Justice Department requested one, as several cases on similar bans were making their way through courts.

The Alabama ban makes it a felony — punishable by up to 10 years in prison — for doctors to treat people under 19 with puberty blockers or hormones to help affirm a new gender identity.

Burke issued a temporary injunction in May 2022 to block Alabama from enforcing its ban on the treatments, a decision that came after a three-day hearing in a lawsuit filed by parents of transgender children. Burke wrote that the law was likely unconstitutional. The U.S. Department of Justice intervened in the case on the side of the parents.

Attorney General Steve Marshall appealed Burke’s temporary injunction, and in August, a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the injunction.