MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Lawyers representing Gov. Jim Doyle, a gay rights group and several same-sex couples asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Sept. 22 to reject a challenge to the state’s new domestic partnership registry.

Members of a social conservative group filed a lawsuit in July claiming the registry violates the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and civil unions approved by voters in 2006. They asked the Supreme Court to take the case immediately, bypassing trial and appeals courts, because of its statewide significance.

The Supreme Court is considering whether to take the case and had ordered the state to respond. At least four justices have to agree to do so.

Madison attorney Lester Pines, hired by Doyle to defend the registry after Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen refused, told the justices there were was no urgency and so many facts in dispute that a trial court should consider it first.

Lawyers for Fair Wisconsin, the group that lobbied lawmakers to create the registry this year, and the American Civil Liberties Union echoed that argument in filings of their own.

ACLU asked the court for permission to represent five same-sex couples pleased the registry will allow them to visit each other in the hospital, inherit assets if a partner dies without a will and take medical leave to care for each other. Since Fair Wisconsin and ACLU are not parties to the case, they have to ask the court to allow them to intervene.

“We’re hopeful that the Wisconsin Supreme Court will recognize that lesbian and gay couples have the most at stake in this lawsuit and deserve their day in court,” said Larry DuPuis, legal director of the ACLU of Wisconsin.

The plaintiffs in the case, members of Wisconsin Family Action, have not decided whether to oppose the intervention requests, lawyer Jim Campbell said.

Nine-hundred seventy couples have been added to the registry since the law went into effect in August, according to the Department of Health Services. Registering gives them only a fraction of the more than 150 benefits afforded to married couples.

Fair Wisconsin, which led the opposition to the 2006 amendment, is being represented in the case by the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a New York-based gay rights group.

Fair Wisconsin and ACLU noted the benefits given to same-sex couples under the registry far fall short of marriage. Dupuis called domestic partnerships “a poorly understood second-class status” and Lambda Legal attorney Christopher Clark said it was preposterous to suggest they amount to marriage.

But Van Hollen and other critics say the law is unconstitutional because the new relationships created are “substantially similar” to marriage, which was outlawed by the 2006 amendment. They focus on the similarities in the process and qualifications to apply for the registry and a marriage license.

Clark said he wants to show how voters were told in 2006 the amendment would not prohibit domestic partner benefits. Such fact-finding is best done at the trial court level, he said.

Clark said he rejected the argument the case should be expedited to the high court so same-sex couples can know sooner whether their relationships are valid. He said there was no emergency for the court to act now.

“Same-sex couples are going to be better served by having a deliberate presentation of the evidence that lays out their case as opposed to rushing to judgment,” he said. “We believe the history and evidence is squarely on our side.”