The Supreme Court on Monday overturned a federal judge’s order that had prohibited federal agents in Los Angeles from stopping people and questioning them about their immigration status based solely on factors like their ethnicity.

The ruling is not the final word in the case, which stems from the Trump administration’s attempt to carry out mass deportations. But the court’s Republican-appointed majority will allow the government to continue using aggressive — and unconstitutional, in the eyes of its critics — tactics in immigration sweeps as the litigation slowly plays out.

Here is a closer look.

What does the ruling mean?

For now, federal agents in Los Angeles carrying out the immigration crackdown can continue to decide which people to stop and at least briefly detain for questioning based solely on one or a combination of four factors that a lower-court judge had deemed unconstitutional.

Those factors are people’s apparent race or ethnicity; the fact that they speak English with an accent or speak Spanish; their presence at particular locations like farms or pickup sites for day laborers; and the type of work they do.

For the Trump administration, that means federal agents can make stops to carry out the immigration crackdown without the potential chilling effect of fearing they could be accused of violating a court order and held in contempt.

For American citizens of Hispanic descent in Los Angeles — especially people who speak with an accent or work as manual laborers — that means they will continue to risk being stopped and questioned whenever they go out. They may see it as a necessary precaution to always carry documents with them in a way that other Americans need not.