As the contentious debate over marriage equality continues in various states, the highest court in the land has made a decision concerning one state's current battle with marriage equality advocates. The Supreme Court ruled that Utah does not have to recognize the same-sex marriages performed previously as it appeals the decision.

The struggle for equal marriages in Utah has been a long one. On December 2013, a Salt Lake City court overturned the state's ban on same-sex marriages, allowing 1,308 couples to marry for the next 17 days.

However, the state asked the Supreme Court to act, according to CNN, since the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals decided to not issue a stay. The Justices issued the stay, and same-sex marriages came to a halt in the state until the next ruling. This came six months later when the 10th Circuit Court upheld the earlier court's decision on June 25.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Utah filed an emergency motion with the Supreme Court, asking them to intervene so that the state does not have to recognize the same-sex marriages performed during the 17-day window. A motion filed in the 10th Circuit Court was rejected.

The Supreme Court, on the other hand, decided in favor of the state of Utah, according to The New York Times. The highest court in the land decided that the state does not have to recognize the more than 1,300 marriages performed while the case is being appealed.

The state had asked the court to decide on the status of "interim marriages" performed in between appeals and in a brief two sentence ruling the Justices said that the lower court's ruling "is stayed pending the final disposition of the appeal."

Both the state's attorneys and one dissenting judge in the Court of Appeals said that allowing the marriages' recognition to continue "invited chaos."

"Constitutional rights do not spring into existence by mass social activity triggered by the unreviewed decision of a single district court judge," said the state's brief, "adding that the status quo should be maintained until the Supreme Court has the last word."