ST. LOUIS (AP) – Missouri’s top prosecutor has appealed a judge’s ruling overturning the state’s constitutional ban on gay marriage.

Attorney General Chris Koster said in a news release Wednesday that the issue needed to be resolved by the Missouri Supreme Court. The announcement came after St. Louis Circuit Judge Rex Burlison said in a written ruling that Missouri’s measure recognizing marriage as only between a man and woman violates the due process and equal protection rights of the U.S. Constitution. The decision mirrored ones handed down recently in numerous other states.

The city of St. Louis issued four marriage licenses to same-sex couples in June and then quit doing so, intentionally setting up a legal challenge to the state’s 2004 constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.