WASHINGTON — A divided Supreme Court has blocked a Texas law championed by conservatives that aimed to keep social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter from censoring users based on their viewpoints.

The court voted in an unusual 5-4 alignment Tuesday to put the Texas law on hold, while a lawsuit plays out in lower courts.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett voted to grant the emergency request from two technology industry groups that challenged the law in federal court.

Republican elected officials in several states have backed laws like those enacted in Florida and Texas that seek to portray social media companies as hostile to ideas from the political right.