The National Institutes of Health shouldn’t cut off funding to 900 grants that the agency previously canceled and then had to restore thanks to a June court order, lawyers for the Department of Health and Human Services said last week.

The Supreme Court recently overturned that court order, paving the way for NIH to once again cut off funding to the grants. However, the justices also kept in place a lower court order that found that NIH’s directives for the grant terminations were unlawful.

Science reported that lawyers from the Office of General Counsel at HHS advised the agency to stop work on reinstating grants that hadn’t been restored yet. The court decision affects about $783 million in grants.

“For those grants reinstated by NIH in response to the June judgements, we would strongly recommend against re-terminating such grants, because it will likely be viewed as a reapplication of the now-vacated challenged directives,” wrote NIH legal adviser David Lankford.

Science noted that political appointees at NIH could ignore the legal advice and re-terminate the grants. Additionally, the agency might have more latitude next fiscal year to cut off funding for grants that officials say don’t align with the administration’s priorities.