WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court agreed Friday to take up an appeal from tech giant Cisco seeking to shut down a lawsuit claiming that the company’s technology was used to persecute members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement in China.

The justices, who will hear arguments in the spring, will review an appellate ruling that would allow the lawsuit against Cisco to go forward in U.S. courts.

The court acted after the Trump administration weighed in on Cisco’s behalf to urge the justices to hear the case.

An Associated Press investigation last year showed that American tech companies, to a large degree, designed and built China’s surveillance state, encouraged by Republican and Democratic administrations, even as activists warned such tools were being used to quash dissent, persecute religious groups and target minorities.

In 2008, documents leaked to the press showed Cisco saw the “Golden Shield,” China’s internet censorship effort, as a sales opportunity. The company quoted a Chinese official calling the Falun Gong an “evil cult.” A Cisco presentation reviewed by AP from the same year said its products could identify over 90% of Falun Gong material on the web.