On Thursday, a federal judge temporarily blocked Arizona from enforcing a law banning transgender girls from playing on girls’ school sports teams.

The Tucson judge granted a preliminary injunction to allow processing of a lawsuit filed on behalf of two transgender girls against the state’s “Save Women’s Sports Act,” which was passed by the Legislature last year.

The lawsuit argues the law violates federal Title IX, the law barring sex discrimination in schools receiving federal funds, and the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, said he plans to appeal the decision.

“This will ultimately be decided by the United States Supreme Court, and they will rule in our favor,” Horne said in a statement.

Arizona is one of many states and additionally some school districts that have passed laws limiting access to school sports teams or facilities to students on the basis of the sex they were assigned at birth rather than their chosen gender identity.

The Arizona plaintiffs are a 15-year-old volleyball player and an 11-year-old who would like to play on the girls’ soccer, basketball and cross-country teams. Due to their age, in court filings the following names have been assigned to them: Jane Doe and Megan Roe.

The parents of both children were pleased with the court’s decision.

“We are relieved that the judge saw past the misconceptions and harmful rhetoric used to demonize transgender girls. Our daughter is looking forward to making new friends and playing the sports that she loves,” Jane Doe’s parents said in a statement from the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which is helping to represent them.

Arizona officials have said the law passes federal muster because it aims at fairness.

“Title IX was aimed at giving girls equal opportunities for playing sports. When a biological boy plays in a girls’ sport, it disadvantages the girls,” Horne told The Associated Press when the lawsuit was filed in April. “There have been lots of news stories about girls who worked hard to excel at their sports, found they could not when they had to compete against biological boys and were devastated by that.”

In issuing the preliminary injunction, Judge Jennifer G. Zipps claims there was no evidence that allowing the children, who have been prescribed puberty blockers for gender dysphoria, to play on girls’ teams would have an athletic advantage or prove a safety risk to other players. The judge detailed that the children will “suffer severe and irreparable mental, physical, and emotional harm if the Act applies to them because they cannot play on boys’ sports teams” which would be as she described “painful and humiliating.”

Courts across the country have blocked similar measures in several states.