BOSTON, Mass. (AP) — The state’s highest court upheld that the state Legislature was within its rights to adjourn last year without voting on a constitutional amendment that would have outlawed gay marriage in Massachusetts.

The lawsuit filed by Massachusetts Citizens for Marriage claimed that the Legislature violated the state Constitution by failing to vote on the initiative, which sought to put the question of gay marriage to voters in a ballot referendum.

A single justice of the state Supreme Judicial Court dismissed the complaint in February.

Massachusetts Citizens for Marriage appealed that decision to the full court, which heard arguments in May.

In its ruling, the high court reiterated a ruling it made in another case in 1992, when it said the state Constitution does not give the judiciary any power to order the state Legislature to act.

In its lawsuit, the group argued that the inaction of the Legislature in 2002 should be treated as a tacit approval of the proposed amendment, so the Massachusetts Secretary of State should be required to send the proposal on to this year’s Legislature for a second vote.

In order to go on the ballot, the amendment would have to be approved by 25 percent of the 200 state lawmakers during two consecutive legislative sessions.

But the high court ruled that the Secretary of State’s only duty is to transmit the amendment the first time, and later, if it is approved by two successive Legislatures, he must put it on the ballot.

In November, the state’s highest court became the first in the country to rule that its state constitution guarantees gays and lesbians the right to marry, and gave the Legislature six months to change state laws to make it happen.

Although courts in other states have issued similar rulings, the court in Massachusetts went further — by definitively ruling a ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.