A federal judge in Tallahassee decided Thursday that the ban in Florida on same-sex marriages was unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hinkle ruled that the ban enacted in 2008 violated the 14th amendment in its guarantee of equal protection and due process.

Hinkle immediately issued a stay on the order, which means gay couples cannot yet acquire marriage licenses. Additionally, the stay means that same-sex couples married legally in other states might not have their unions recognized in Florida.

The judge deemed this ban on gay marriages will be viewed by posterity similarly with historical bans on other couples like interracial pairs from getting married.

"When observers look back 50 years from now, the arguments supporting Florida's ban on same-sex marriage, though just as sincerely held, will again seem an obvious pretext for discrimination," Hinkle wrote in his ruling, according to ABC News. "To paraphrase a civil rights leader from the age when interracial marriage was struck down, the arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice."

Attorney General for the state of Florida Pam Bondi, a Republican, appealed other past strike-downs of the marital ban this year. Bondi said she wants the ruling to remain pending until the U.S. Supreme Court weighs in on the case.

"The U.S. Supreme Court, they need to decide this case, they are going to decide this case, hopefully sooner than later so we will have finality," Bondi said before Hinkle's decision was announced. "There are good people on both sides of this issue and we need to have finality for everyone involved."

The American Civil Liberties Union in Florida represented some of the gay couples in the lawsuit involved in the case. The ACLU said after the ruling that this decision is part of a changing swing on same-sex marriage laws in Florida.

"We're very pleased to see the ban held unconstitutional in such unequivocal terms so that all Florida families will soon finally have the same protections," ACLU staff attorney Daniel Tilley said.