A federal appeals court on Wednesday blocked a lower court from allowing voters in Wisconsin to cast ballots without photo identification, stating that the lower court had been too lenient in loosening a state voter ID law that had already been declared discriminatory.

The injunction, issued by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, adds a new measure of confusion into a fierce battle over the 2011 law in a battleground state, three months before the presidential election.

But it did not affect a second federal court ruling in July that loosened Wisconsin’s photo ID law in a different manner: allowing any registered voter struggling to get one of the accepted forms of ID to obtain voting credentials at any state motor vehicle office. The July ruling also broadened the types of ID that college students can present at polling places.

The second ruling , which additionally struck down a host of other voting prerequisites as discriminatory, is also being appealed to the Seventh Circuit. It was unclear when the court would rule on that challenge.