ACLU of Nebraska, which organized the lawsuit, was “bombarded” by Nebraskans wanting to participate in the suit, said Amy Miller, the group’s legal director. The team of attorneys settled on seven couples as plaintiffs.

Six of the couples are legally married in other states. Four have children. One has been together for three decades; another nearly that long. They include a therapist, a lawyer, a CPA, a doctor, four consultants, a disabled veteran and an advocate for families with disabled children.

"(They) seek nothing more and nothing less than the freedom to marry who they love, and to be granted the dignity that full marriage recognition provides,” ACLU of Nebraska Executive Director Danielle Conrad said in a news release introducing the plaintiffs.

The advocacy group is hoping to end what it started in 2003 when it was part of the nation’s first lawsuit challenging a statewide ban on same-sex marriage. With Monday’s filing, Nebraska is the latest — and perhaps final — state to jump into the fray.

This lawsuit comes on the heels of a decision by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold marriage bans in four other states: Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky. But before that, appeals courts had overwhelmingly sided with advocates for same-sex marriage.