The U.S. Supreme Court is allowing Virginia to continue purging 1,600 alleged non-citizens from voter rolls ahead of Election Day.

The conservative majority’s undisclosed decision reverses unanimous decisions by a federal district court judge and an appeals court panel.

Both had said the purge, initiated by an executive order from Virginia’s Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, violated federal law that prohibits the “systematic” removal of voters from registration rolls within 90 days of an election.

The Supreme Court’s decision suggests that the justices acted either under the Purcell principle (to prevent federal courts from intervening in state election administration too close to the vote) or under the belief that Virginia had persuasively argued that the federal law’s “quiet period” was not effective. does not apply here.

The state advanced the idea that noncitizens who were never “eligible” to vote in the first place could be removed from office at any time. Additionally, the court papers emphasized that anyone who was falsely expelled as an alleged non-citizen was given two opportunities to correct their registration status.

Three liberal justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson — have indicated they will suspend the purge.

Non-citizen voters are already prohibited from registering to vote in federal and state elections.

However, purged Virginia voters may still have a chance to vote if they use Virginia’s same-day registration option at the polls.

“I am pleased to announce that the U.S. Supreme Court has granted Virginia an emergency stay to keep non-citizens off our voter rolls,” Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares tweeted Wednesday.

Damon Hewitt, president and chief executive of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which is leading the effort in Virginia, reacted strongly to the decision.

In his statement, he said, “None of these events are random. Everything is extremely planned, but also planned for a purpose.”