A divided US Supreme Court cleared the way for President-elect Donald Trump’s sentencing in his hush money criminal case, dealing him a symbolic setback as he prepares to begin his second term in office.

New York’s Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, also refused to stop Trump’s sentencing Thursday morning, as the president-elect went to the court after both Merchan and a New York appeals judge declined to pause it while Trump appeals two orders Merchan issued upholding the guilty verdict.

After the court declined in a 5-to-4 decision to block Donald J. Trump’s criminal sentencing, he is scheduled to face a New York judge on Friday morning.