A U.S. Supreme Court order created confusion last week, with transparency advocates cheering what appeared to be a reinstatement of mandatory company ownership reporting, before the government clarified that another legal hurdle continues to block the implementation of a landmark anti-corruption law.

The law, known as the Corporate Transparency Act, was enacted in 2021 and mandated the establishment of a nationwide database of company owners in an effort to lift the veil of secrecy off anonymous shell companies.

The law’s implementation has turned into a winding saga, plagued by legal challenges, delays, and political conflict. Two separate federal judges in Texas recently issued injunctions halting its enforcement. This had the practical effect of making it voluntary for companies to report their ownership to the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN.

Thursday’s decision stayed one of the nationwide injunctions, but FinCEN quickly clarified in a statement on its website on Friday that the order did not affect the separate injunction that continues to block the agency from mandating that companies report their ownership.

On Friday, the FACT Coalition, a supporter of the new law, said that the high court’s order sent “an important positive signal” and that the separate injunction should also be lifted because it was “at odds” with the Supreme Court’s order.

When it was enacted late in President Donald Trump’s first administration, the Corporate Transparency Act was hailed as one of the most significant anti-corruption laws in recent U.S. history. Until then, there was no requirement for companies to disclose their true owners, which contributed to the U.S. climbing the lists of the world’s top financial secrecy havens. Under the new rules — currently on hold due to legal challenges — companies registered in the U.S. must provide FinCEN with ownership details, which are recorded in a database accessible to law enforcement, regulators and some private-sector compliance officials.

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As ICIJ and its partners have reported, states like Delaware, South Dakota and Wyoming have become go-to destinations for criminals, corrupt actors, and people with wealth of dubious origins seeking to park funds. As part of its 2021 Pandora Papers investigation, ICIJ and its media partners uncovered more than a dozen ultrawealthy foreigners who had chosen Wyoming as the location to set up secretive trusts and limited liability companies, or LLCs. This included a Russian billionaire as well as an associate of a dictator, according to ICIJ’s reporting. One promotional document, generated by a Cyprus-based corporate services firm, pointed to the U.S. state “overtaking the Cayman Islands, Singapore and New Zealand” as the go-to place to form LLCs and trusts. Wyoming “is not a target of the Inland Revenue Services to discover unreported taxes,” the document stated, appearing to refer to the name used by several national tax authorities around the globe.

It’s unclear how much the new law will ultimately stem the flood of American shell companies. The database has also been beset by successive administrative delays. The Treasury Department lagged badly behind schedule in its attempts to write rules governing the database and blamed FinCEN’s underfunding and short-staffing for the slow progress.

As FinCEN appears to have largely worked through these internal challenges, outside legal actions have become a larger threat to the database’s implementation. Questions over constitutionality have drawn in powerful actors, as major law enforcement associations have been pitted against national business federations. Republican lawmakers have repeatedly introduced legislation to repeal the law while major business groups have backed litigation seeking to overturn it.

In one of the cases, the National Federation of Independent Business and other plaintiffs sued the U.S. government, contending that the Corporate Transparency Act’s reporting requirement exceeded congressional authority to regulate business activity. After that suit succeeded in blocking the database for several weeks, the Supreme Court lifted the injunction, referring the matter to the conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to assess this coming March, according to Bloomberg Tax. The suit was backed by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Individual Rights.

The other case, brought by two business owners in Texas, argues similarly that the federal government has no “lawful authority to force private individuals to report private information to a federal law enforcement database solely because they choose to maintain their property through state-created corporate form.” Earlier this month, a different judge agreed, granting the plaintiffs a nationwide injunction that the Supreme Court justices did not address in last week’s order. The plaintiffs in the case are represented by the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the government had not filed a motion to appeal the injunction in that case. However, Chance Weldon, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said he expected the government to appeal the decision. Until then, the new law will likely remain on hold. “If the Department of Justice doesn’t appeal it, there’s nothing that any of the other courts can do about it,” Weldon said.

In response to questions from ICIJ, a Treasury Department spokesperson highlighted several similar cases from federal courts around the country that did not succeed. The agency did not respond to a question about possible next steps in the litigation.