BOSTON (AP) – The court that made Massachusetts the first state to legalize same-sex marriage will now decide whether same-sex couples from other states can marry here.

The case is being closely watched across the country because if the Supreme Judicial Court strikes down a 1913 law, same-sex couples from across the country could come here to wed and demand marriage rights at home.

Eight gay and lesbian couples from surrounding states, all of whom were denied marriage licenses in Massachusetts, are challenging the law, which forbids nonresidents from marrying here if their union would not be recognized in their home state.

Massachusetts last year became the first state to allow same-sex marriage. Forty-one others have passed laws or constitutional amendments banning it.

Michele Granda, a gay-rights lawyer for the couples, argued before the high court last week that the 1913 law “sat on the shelf” unused for decades until it was “dusted off” by the governor.

Granda said the high court, in its historic ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, found that under the Massachusetts Constitution, same-sex couples had the same right to marry as heterosexual couples.

“Nothing in [that ruling] says that our officials can discriminate simply because officials in other states discriminate,” Granda told the six-judge panel.

Attorneys for the state argued that the law is being enforced in an evenhanded way for both heterosexual and same-sex couples.

Assistant Attorney General Peter Sacks said Massachusetts risks a “backlash” if it flouts the laws of others states by marrying same-sex couples from states that prohibit it. “We’ve got respect for other states’ laws,” he said.

The high court is expected to issue a ruling in the next few months.