A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld a lower court’s ruling that Virginia's same-sex marriage ban violated the Constitution's 14th Amendment. With the 2-1 decision, the 4th Circuit joins the 10th Circuit, which recently knocked down similar bans in Utah and Oklahoma, in declaring state laws that prohibit same-sex marriage unconstitutional.

“We recognize that same-sex marriage makes some people deeply uncomfortable,” Judge Henry Floyd wrote in a majority opinion that was joined by Judge Roger Gregory. “However, inertia and apprehension are not legitimate bases for denying same-sex couples due process and equal protection of the laws.”

Judge Paul Niemeyer dissented.

The Virginia case is notable in that the state’s attorney general, Democrat Mark Herring, had declined to defend the ban – an amendment to the state’s constitution passed by Virginia voters in 2006. On a call with reporters after the ruling, Herring said he was “proud that the commonwealth of Virginia is leading on one of the most important civil rights issues of our day.”

It will be up to the two circuit clerks named in the case to appeal the decision – either to have the case heard by all the judges on the 4th Circuit or by appealing directly to the Supreme Court. It is possible that a stay on the ruling could be placed while an appeal is considered, as has been the case in other states. Otherwise, same-sex marriage could be legal in Virginia as early as Aug. 18 – the soonest the ruling said the decision could go into effect.

The decision also adds pressure on the Supreme Court to consider same-sex marriage, which it could rule on as early as next year. The Utah Attorney General’s Office has said it intends to appeal the 10th Circuit decision knocking down its state's ban on same-sex marriage directly to the high court.

"The Virginia decision is part of a broader landscape that the Supreme Court will consider at whatever point it decides to take a marriage case," Suzanne B. Goldberg, director of Columbia Law School's Center for Gender and Sexuality Law, says in an email to U.S. News. "So far, there is no split along the circuits – all three circuits to have ruled have concluded [in] favor of marriage equality. As a result, the Supreme Court could let the 10th Circuit decision sit or might decide to take up the question in the coming term."

Meanwhile, Alliance Defending Freedom – a religious freedom nonprofit representing the clerks defending the same-sex marriage bans in both Oklahoma and Virginia – is still evaluating its next steps in both cases. "Ultimately, the question whether the people are free to affirm marriage as a man-woman union will be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court," Byron Babione, senior counsel for the group, said in a statement Monday.

The decision does not automatically apply to same-sex marriage bans in other states covered by the 4th Circuit, but it sets a precedent for challenges to same-sex marriage bans in West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. For instance, a U.S. district judge in West Virginia said in June that he was waiting on the 4th Circuit’s decision to proceed on a case challenging the ban there. Meanwhile, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, a Democrat, told reporters Monday that in light of the 4th Circuit ruling, his office will stop defending the state's same-sex marriage ban in court.