The U.S. Supreme Court announced Wednesday it will hear the PennEast Pipeline Company’s appeal of an eminent domain ruling in New Jersey. The proposed $1 billion pipeline hit a snag in the Garden State in 2019 when a federal appeals court ruled the company couldn’t use eminent domain to acquire 42 properties that are owned by the state and preserved for farmland or open space.

The judges wrote that while the federal Natural Gas Act allows private gas companies to exercise the federal government’s power to take property by eminent domain, that doesn’t extend to state-owned properties.

The properties fall under the 11th Amendment, which protects states from lawsuits by private parties in federal court, the panel concluded.

Late last year, lawyers for the Trump Administration filed a brief asking the Supreme Court to take up the case. New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal had urged the court not to take another look at the ruling.

The Supreme Court said it will hear arguments in April.

Originally, PennEast sought to build the entire 116-mile pipeline in one shot, but has now split the project into two phases including 68 miles of pipe and the portion running through Carbon and Monroe counties, entirely within Pennsylvania and ready to deliver natural gas by November 2021.

The second phase would include the remaining route in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with a targeted completion of 2023.