AUSTIN, Texas — Texas' abortion law will remain in effect for now. But in a rare move, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up two cases involving the state's near total ban Nov. 1.

“It’s really incredibly unusual. This is the fastest we’ve seen the Supreme Court schedule a case for oral argument from when it decided to take it since Bush v. Gore, which is not just 20 years ago, but a pretty powerful example of how rare this is,” said Stephen Vladeck, a constitutional law professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

Vladeck said it's also worth noting how the high court is jumping over the 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals, both in the federal government’s challenge and a challenge brought by abortion providers. The justices said Friday they will decide whether the federal government has the right to sue over the law.

“I think what it suggests is not how the court’s going to rule, but how the court is of a view, is of perhaps even a consensus view, that whether the federal government, whether these providers, can actually challenge [Senate Bill 8] is really this critically important question that needs to be decided now. So that if the answer to either question is yes, the actual merits, the constitutionality of Texas’ ban, can quickly be resolved by lower courts,” said Vladeck.

Texas’ law bans abortions after cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy, before some women know they're pregnant. It was also written to evade early federal court review by putting enforcement of it into the hands of private citizens, rather than state officials. Thursday, the state urged the court to leave the law in place. The Supreme Court is not immediately blocking the law.

“I think the best we can say about that is that there are at least a couple of critical justices, justices who are going to be the swing vote on this issue, that still don't know where they are," Vladeck said. “I think that’s the compromise you see in today’s order. There may not yet be a majority to keep SB8 blocked, but there’s also not a majority in the other direction, which suggests there’s still a lot to play for, that the arguments on Nov. 1 are actually going to be really important and, perhaps, even decisive.”

Vladeck said the fact that the Supreme Court is moving so quickly on these cases, suggests we may get a ruling on what happens with the law in the interim not long after the arguments on Nov. 1.

"The trickier question is if the court says yes, does that tell us anything more about the abortion right moving forward? Does it tell us anything more about what the court’s going to do in the Mississippi case it’s set to hear in December?” Vladeck said.

The court will hear arguments on Dec. 1 in the Mississippi case in which that state is calling for the court to overrule the Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey decisions.