The Arkansas Supreme Court on Monday reinstated an agency rule prohibiting residents from using “X” instead of male or female on state-issued driver’s licenses or identification cards.

In a one-page order, justices stayed a lower-court ruling that had blocked the new rule that also made it more difficult for transgender people to change the sex listed on their IDs and licenses. The court did not elaborate for its reasons on staying the decision.

The Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration said in March that it was rescinding a practice implemented in 2010 that officials say conflicted with state law and had not gone through proper legislative approval. A legislative panel approved an emergency rule implementing the new policy.

The rule change made Arkansas the latest among Republican states taking steps to legally define sex as binary, which critics say is essentially erasing transgender and nonbinary people’s existences and creating uncertainty for intersex people — those born with physical traits that don’t fit typical definitions of male or female.

“I applaud the Arkansas Supreme Court’s decision staying the circuit court’s unlawful order and allowing the Department of Finance and Administration to bring its identification rules into compliance with state law,” Attorney General Tim Griffin, a Republican, said in a statement.

The American Civil Liberties Union had sued the state on behalf of several transgender, nonbinary and intersex residents challenging the emergency rule. A state judge who blocked the rule earlier this month said it would cause irreparable harm to the residents if implemented.

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