Via Think Progress, a three-judge panel of the DC Appeals Court has put a stay on Judge Royce Lamberth’s preliminary injunction against all federally-funded stem cell research. This means that research will be allowed to continue while the court case makes its way through the process.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia granted a request from the Justice Department to stay an injunction issued Aug. 23 blocking the funding. In a major victory for supporters of the research, the court said the Obama administration could resume funding the research pending a full appeal of the case.

U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, ruling in a lawsuit filed by two researchers working on alternatives to the cells, said the funding violated a federal rule that prohibits federal tax money from being used for research that involves the destruction of human embryos.

You can find the stay order here. All three judges who unanimously made the decision are conservatives, including the ultra-conservative Janice Rogers Brown.

This is only an administrative stay, however, that is designed to “give the court sufficient opportunity to consider the merits of the emergency motion for stay and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of that motion,” according to the order. A more permanent ruling may come as early as September 20. For the time being, however, the injunction is lifted, and potentially life-saving research can continue.