WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed Republican officials in Virginia to revive a plan aimed at removing noncitizen voters from the rolls before next week’s elections.

The justices blocked a federal judge’s ruling that halted the program and required the state to reinstate 1,600 voters.

The brief order noted that the court’s three liberal justices, who have a six-to-three conservative majority, all dissented.

“This is a victory for common sense and fairness in elections,” Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, a Republican who announced the plan in August, said in a statement.

“Virginians can cast their votes on Election Day knowing that Virginia elections are fair, secure and free from politically motivated interference,” he added.

Virginia has same-day voter registration, meaning any eligible voter who is removed from the rolls should still be able to vote.

Civil rights groups backed by the Biden administration disputed the plan, saying it would also have led to some legal voters being removed from the voter rolls. The Justice Department said that while states can review their voter rolls, they cannot do so right before the election.

Under the National Voter Registration Act, states are prohibited from systematically removing people from the voter rolls within 90 days of an election.

“Everyone agrees that states can and should remove ineligible voters, including noncitizens, from their voter rolls. The only question in this case is when and how they may do so,” Attorney General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote in lawsuits filed by the Biden administration.

The state’s plan flagged people for removal if they checked a box on a Department of Motor Vehicles form saying they were not citizens, or if they left the box blank.

Groups that filed suit, including the Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights, said the lawsuit attracted people who may have indicated they were not citizens at the time but later became U.S. citizens. Civil rights groups and the Biden administration have both provided evidence of US citizens who were likely delisted as a result.

In court filings, the groups said that “the report makes clear that citizens are being removed from the voter rolls.” These are voters that the 90-day period “is designed to protect,” she added.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles ordered the state to halt its program and restore the voter registrations of more than 1,600 people removed in recent months.

The Virginia plan reflects broader, unproven Republican talking points, amplified by former President Donald Trump, that voting by non-citizen voters is widespread.

This story could be used as a basis to challenge the election results if Trump loses on Election Day.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, a Republican who made a name for himself as an anti-immigration hardliner, filed a brief in support of Virginia, who was joined by 25 other Republican attorneys general.