WASHINGTON--A U.S. appeals court granted on Thursday an Obama administration request to temporarily lift a judge's ban on federal funding of research involving human embryonic stem cells.
The three-judge panel of the appeals court said in a brief order that it put on hold the judge's ban while it considers the merits of the administration's emergency request for a stay of his injunction.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth last month ruled that the research violated U.S. law because it involved destroying human embryos, a setback for President Barack Obama, who had tried to expand research in hopes it would lead to new cures of diseases.
The appeals court ordered that briefs be filed by Sept. 20. It then will have to decide whether its temporary administrative stay should be extended or ended.
The administration told the appeals court that Lamberth's ruling was at odds with the intent of Congress when it wrote the law limiting federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research and that it would undercut ongoing medical research.