In a brief unsigned order Thursday, the Supreme Court cleared the way for New Hampshire to bar the use of student IDs as the valid photo ID required to obtain a ballot, and paused a ruling by U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante that had eased the restriction ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

The justices cited the Purcell principle — the idea that lower federal courts should ordinarily not alter election rules on the eve of an election. According to SCOTUSblog, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the lone dissenter.

According to NBC News, the decision means potential voters cannot use student IDs even as backups when establishing identity, and the state had the backing of the Republican National Committee.

The ruling lands in the final stretch before a closely watched New Hampshire Senate race between Republican former Sen. John E. Sununu and Democratic Rep.

Chris Pappas for the seat held by retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen — a contest NBC News notes could play a key role in deciding Senate control.

The surprise is the scope: a state law already barred student IDs as a primary form of identification, but Judge Laplante had allowed officials to consider them under a separate 'safety-valve' provision letting voters without qualifying photo ID establish identity by other means.

The Court's stay effectively reverts to the stricter reading two weeks before voting begins.

Legislators passed HB 323 in April and it took effect in June. The Coalition for Open Democracy, a nonprofit that helps high schools run voter-registration drives, sued in federal court, arguing the law burdens the right to vote and was intended to discriminate against young voters.

Laplante declined to block the core provision but barred the state from enforcing an April directive by Secretary of State David Scanlan to the extent it prohibited officials from considering student IDs as evidence of voter identity.

After the 1st Circuit refused to pause that ruling, Scanlan took the fight to the Supreme Court.

The parties disagreed sharply over whether Purcell even applied.

SCOTUSblog reports Scanlan argued his office had already published student voting guides, updated polling place posters and its website, run social media outreach and radio ads, and spoken at public events — so Laplante's order would force the state to undo that work on the eve of the election.

The Coalition countered that the judge did not block a state law at all but instead 'enforces the legislature's statutes against an executive gloss exceeding the statutes' reach,' and noted Scanlan had already revised his website guidance.

Justice Jackson argued the district court's relief actually promoted the interests Purcell protects: 'When a federal court determines that material misrepresentations are being made about a State's election rules, an injunction to prohibit that conduct does not contribute to public confusion, it prevents that very problem,' she wrote, per SCOTUSblog.

NBC News reports the stay lasts while the state's appeal moves forward. For the Nov.

3 election, voters without a qualifying photo ID lose the ability to lean on a student ID among other evidence, and the underlying litigation over HB 323 continues after the vote.