SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – California’s attorney general on July 1 urged the state Supreme Court to decide whether same-sex marriage is permitted under the state constitution.

Attorney General Bill Lockyer asked the justices to review a trial judge’s decision in March that said state laws limiting marriage to heterosexual couples is unconstitutional. That ruling by San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer has been stayed pending appeal.

The attorney general’s move is irregular because he wants California’s top court to remove the pending case from a San Francisco appellate court, where the appeal is in its infancy.

“Same-sex couples should be given a prompt determination as to whether they can marry, and should not have to put their lives and affairs on hold indefinitely while this matter works its way through several levels of court proceedings,” Lockyer said.

The move came two days after same-sex couples won a major legal victory before the state Supreme Court, which let stand a new law granting registered domestic partners many of the same rights and protections of heterosexual marriage.

But it’s unclear whether the justices will decide the same-sex marriage question since they normally do not resolve cases until they have worked their way through the trial and appellate courts. One of the last times they did involved same-sex marriage.

On Aug. 12, the seven justices ruled unanimously that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom overstepped his authority by issuing same-sex marriage licenses that spring. On a 5-2 vote the court also voided the 4,000 marriages of gay and lesbian couples sanctioned by the city.

The justices said the city violated the law when it issued the certificates and performed the marriage ceremonies in a month-long wedding march beginning Feb. 12, 2004. They ruled on the issue without it going through the lower courts because gay and lesbian married couples were seeking benefits bestowed upon spouses, and yet state lawmakers never authorized any.

The court didn’t resolve whether the California Constitution would permit a same-sex marriage, ruling instead on the narrow issue of whether local officials could bypass California’s judicial and legislative branches. That move suggested the justices may wait to review the same-sex marriage issue until the San Francisco-based 1st District Court of Appeal has ruled on the case.

In nullifying the marriages, Justice Joyce Kennard wrote the court was not interested in deciding the hot-button issue of same-sex marriage until “the constitutionality of California laws restricting marriages to opposite-sex couples has been authoritatively resolved through judicial proceedings.”

Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said, “We strongly hope the court will accept direct review because the issue is so important. There are tens of thousands of same-sex couples left in legal limbo whether they can be able to marry or not.”

The court can make its decision any time.