“Unless and until this court provides an answer to that important constitutional question,” Derek Schmidt, the state’s attorney general told the justices in an emergency application, “applicants respectfully request that lower federal courts in this case not be allowed by preliminary injunction to disable a democratically enacted provision of the Kansas Constitution.”

The plaintiffs, two couples represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, told the justices that there was no reason to treat the Kansas officials’ request differently from similar stay applications from Idaho and Alaska, which the Supreme Court denied.

Last week’s decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati, did not require a different approach, the couples’ brief said.