On Tuesday, just hours before Donald Trump ’s legal team asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene and pause his sentencing today in the New York case involving hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, the president-elect and the conservative justice talked on the phone.

The court’s 5-4 order Thursday clears the way for Judge Juan M. Merchan to impose a sentence Friday on Trump, who was convicted in what prosecutors called an attempt to cover up a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels.

Some experts and Democratic lawmakers say a phone call between the president-elect and Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. was ethically problematic.