The Supreme Court agreed Friday to step into the heated social debate about whether schools should allow transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice — but the justices could stop short of settling the issue nationwide.

The justices announced that they will hear an appeal in the case of Gavin Grimm, a transgender boy who challenged a Virginia school district policy that prevented him from using the boys’ restroom at his high school.

[Obama Administration Transgender Bathroom Policy Blocked]

The Supreme Court’s move puts on hold a lower court order that sided with lawyers for Grimm and the Obama administration and struck down the Gloucester County School Board policy. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled in April that the school board’s policy violates Title IX of a 1974 federal anti-discrimination law.

The case is the first of several across the country to reach the justices on the issue of laws about which bathrooms transgender people can use — an issue that quickly has become the next front in the legal battle over civil rights. The court is expected to have oral arguments early next year, making it the highest-profile case of the Supreme Court term that ends in June. Educators, civil rights groups, states and members of Congress already weighing in with briefs.