South Carolina is asking the Supreme Court to let it enforce a ban on transgender students using restrooms at school aligned with their gender identity.

In an emergency appeal Thursday, the state asked the justices to lift a federal appeals court's ruling blocking it from putting into effect a budget proviso that requires the state Department of Education to withhold some funding from districts that violate the policy.

South Carolina Solicitor General Thomas Hydrick acknowledged that the case implicates a question "fraught with emotions and differing perspectives."

"That is all the more reason to defer to state lawmakers pending appeal," he argued in the filing. "The decision was the South Carolina legislature’s to make. The end of this litigation will confirm that it made a valid one."

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