AUSTIN — State officials asked the Texas Supreme Court on Thursday to take up a case that challenges the extension of benefits to same-sex couples in Houston.

The state Supreme Court rejected the Houston lawsuit in early September, effectively letting a lower court ruling that upheld the benefits stand.

But state officials, including Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton, are trying to get the case back in court, saying the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in all states, Obergefell vs. Hodges, did not bind state courts to "resolve all other claims in favor of the right to same sex-marriage."

"By issuing its judgment in Obergefell, the Supreme Court effectively has required all states to grant same-sex marriages and recognize same-sex marriages from other states, and the purpose of this brief is not to contest or circumvent that requirement," a letter to the state Supreme Court reads. "But the existence of a federal court judgment obligating states to grant and recognize same-sex marriages does not automatically dictate the outcome of a case like this one, which raises a related but different constitutional question involving municipal employee benefits."

The initial lawsuit was filed when Houston began offering employment benefits to spouses of all married couples in November 2013, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Defense of Marriage Act.

Texas Republicans also suffered a blow after a 2015 Supreme Court ruling legalized same-sex marriage in all states. But this lawsuit could be viewed as part of a larger effort to limit the effects of the ruling.

Chuck Smith, CEO of LGBT advocacy group Equality Texas, said he believes the officials' request is part of an effort to deny same-sex couples rights, despite their protection under the law.

"Abbott, Patrick and Paxton refuse to the accept the SCOTUS ruling as the law of the land, and this is nothing more than a nonsensical flailing to establish or maintain rights to discriminate against legally-married same-sex couples," Smith said in a news release.

Texas' letter to the state Supreme Court argues that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision is legally binding, but the written opinion of the court might not be.

"While the judgment in Obergefell is authoritative, Justice [Anthony] Kennedy's lengthy opinion explaining that judgment is not an addendum to the federal constitution and should not be treated by state courts as if every word of it is the pre-emptive law of the United States," the letter reads.