A Suffolk Superior Court judge has granted the state’s suspended cannabis chief’s request to delay a meeting with her boss which could have ended in her firing.

According to court records, a meeting scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday between Cannabis Control Commission Chair Shannon O’Brien and Treasurer Deb Goldberg will have to wait until the results of an ongoing investigation are made available to O’Brien’s attorneys and investigators are made available for cross-examination.

“Having carefully considered the information before me, the motion for a temporary restraining order is allowed,” Associate Justice of the Superior Court Debra Squires-Lee wrote in her ruling. “Goldberg, in her official capacity as Treasurer and Receiver General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is hereby enjoined from holding the hearing scheduled for Dec. 5.”

O’Brien was unceremoniously removed from her post in September and suspended, with pay, at Goldberg’s direction and with no reason offered to the public. Weeks later, O’Brien sued to have herself reinstated, citing a lack of due process or explanation for her removal. Court action was subsequently delayed, at O’Brien’s request, after Goldberg agreed to meet with her about her suspension.

It was later revealed an investigation into O’Brien’s conduct had shown evidence enough to convince the Treasurer, according to court filings, that the Chair made “racially, ethnically, culturally insensitive statements” to her fellow commissioners and CCC staff.

The hearing blocked by the court would have ostensibly given O’Brien the chance to respond to the investigation, however her attorneys argued the investigator wasn’t going to be available for questioning, a second investigation is still ongoing, and that they were not prepared.

Lawyers for Goldberg argued against any further delay, telling the court that not holding the hearing harms the people of Massachusetts, who continue to pay O’Brien’s $181,722-a-year salary without the benefit of her work.

Postponing the hearing, according to Squires-Lee, does not harm the taxpayers, since Tuesday’s meeting was just the first in what is sure to be a lengthy back-and-forth process, and delay does prevent O’Brien from being “irreparably harmed” by meeting before her attorneys are prepared to defend her.

“There is no similar harm risk to Goldberg from a brief postponement. Requiring Goldberg to delay the hearing, provide O’Brien Investigator 2’s report, and reschedule the hearing when the Investigators are available for cross-examination does no appreciable harm to Goldberg,” the associate justice wrote.

However, the judge did point out that even though she was in favor of allowing for some delay, that from her reading of the law — regardless of how long it takes for the parties involved to meet and have a hearing — it’s plainly up to Goldberg to decide whether or not O’Brien keeps her job.

“I also note that the statute makes clear that the determination of whether O’Brien meets the criteria for removal is Goldberg’s to make, and it is unlikely that O’Brien may persuade me that she has a likelihood of success on the merits of that issue,” she wrote.

The judge ordered her clerk to schedule a hearing on O’Brien’s original preliminary injunction to be held in 10 days, with a responses due from attorneys representing both parties due in the days leading up to the hearing.

Todd & Weld, the high-profile Boston law firm representing Goldberg, did not return a request for comment by press time.