SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah is going directly to the nation's highest court to challenge a federal appeals court panel's ruling that gay couples have a constitutional right to marry, the state attorney general's office announced Wednesday.

The state opted to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court rather than request a review from the entire 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. That option is now off the table no matter what the high court decides.

Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes' office said in a statement that the appeal will be filed in the coming weeks to get "clarity and resolution" from the highest court. "Attorney General Reyes has a sworn duty to defend the laws of our state," the statement said.

The Supreme Court is under no obligation to hear the appeal of the June 25 ruling by a three-judge 10th Circuit panel, said William Eskridge, a Yale University law professor. There also is no deadline to make a decision, he said.

The June 25 ruling found states cannot deprive people of the fundamental right to marry simply because they choose partners of the same sex.

The 2-1 decision marked the first time a federal appeals court weighed in on the matter. The decision became law in the six states covered by the 10th Circuit: Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming.

However, the panel immediately put the ruling on hold pending an appeal.

The Utah case is certain to pique the Supreme Court's interest, but the justices usually look for cases that involve split rulings from federal appeals courts, said Douglas NeJaime, a University of California-Irvine law professor. The court may wait and take up the matter after one or more of the five other appeals courts with pending gay-marriage cases has ruled.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments about Virginia's ban in early May, and a ruling is expected soon. Arguments are scheduled for August and September in two different courts for cases out of Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Nevada and Idaho.

Eskridge said he doesn't expect a quick decision from the high court.

"Why make a decision on the Utah case until they see what the other circuits are going to do?" Eskridge said.

The ruling by the 10th Circuit panel upheld a lower court's decision that overturned Utah's gay-marriage ban, which voters approved in 2004. More than 1,000 same-sex couples in Utah wed after the ban was struck down in the lower court and before the Supreme Court issued a stay.

The panel considered a similar challenge to Oklahoma's gay-marriage ban, but it has not ruled in that case.

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert hoped that the state would appeal to the Supreme Court, his office said recently.

The governor said that in anticipation, the state has already budgeted for defending the law before the highest court.

Utah has spent about $300,000 paying three outside attorneys to defend its same-sex marriage ban. It would cost another $300,000 to have the three defend the case at the Supreme Court, the state estimates.

Plaintiff Moudi Sbeity called the decision to take the case to the high court "wonderful news." He and his partner, Derek Kitchen, are one of three gay couples who sued Utah over its gay- marriage ban.

"We are one step closer toward having our families recognized in our home state," Sbeity said. "It's definitely a case our Supreme Court needs to hear. The faster we can move on this, the better for all of us."

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down parts of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, in effect allowing married same-sex couples to receive federal benefits. The reasoning in that decision frequently has been cited by lower-court judges weighing a series of lawsuits to force states to legalize same-sex marriage.

Gay marriage is legal in 19 states and the District of Columbia, through court decisions, state legislation or popular vote.

Lawsuits have been filed to legalize gay marriage and overturn any state bans in all the other states. In several there have been rulings to overturn the state bans, but those rulings have been put on hold pending appeals.

In one of those states, the Indiana governor's office said Wednesday that it won't recognize hundreds of same-sex marriages that were performed before a federal court halted a lower-court's decision to lift the gay marriage ban.

Gov. Mike Pence's decision, first announced in a memo from chief counsel Mark Ahearn, applies only to state agencies that report to his governor's office and would affect state services controlled by those agencies, such as food stamps or the ability to file jointly for state taxes.

Hundreds of couples were married from June 25, when a U.S. district court judge struck down the state's gay- marriage ban, to June 27, when a federal appeals court stayed the decision.

Pence, a Republican, said Wednesday that the state was only abiding by the decision of the federal appeals court that stayed the earlier ruling that struck down Indiana's gay-marriage ban.

The Indiana attorney general's office, which is handling the court challenges, had no immediate comment.

American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana Legal Director Ken Falk said Wednesday that he believes that Indiana is wrong and the marriages are legal.

"During the time they were married they were lawfully married and the fact that the law, in effect, changed subsequent to their marriage does not void their marriages," Falk said in an email.

The sole exception to the appeals court stay in Indiana was an order for the state to recognize the out-of-state marriage of Amy Sandler and Nikole Quasney of Munster; Quasney is dying of ovarian cancer.

The memo said the state would follow that order.

Democratic Marion County Clerk Beth White, whose office performed more than 450 same-sex weddings, called the governor's decision disheartening and disappointing.

"Gov. Pence owes these couples an explanation on why he continues to deem them as second class citizens," she said in a statement.

Elsewhere on Wednesday, a judge in Colorado struck down his state's gay-marriage ban.

District Court Judge C. Scott Crabtree ruled the 2006 voter-approved ban violates the state and federal constitutions. He immediately put his ruling on hold pending an appeal.

Crabtree is the 16th judge to void a state's gay-marriage ban since last year's Supreme Court ruling.

Information for this article was contributed by Brady McCombs, Charles D. Wilson and staff members of The Associated Press and by Micahel Muskal of the Los Angeles Times.

A Section on 07/10/2014