Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange filed a motion on Friday evening, asking a federal court to hold same-sex marriages in the state until the Supreme Court rules on the issue.

The motion is in response to the decision by a federal court on the same day on a challenge raised by a lesbian couple because of the state's refusal to recognize their wedding held in California in 2008.

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Cari Searcy and Kimberly McKeand filed the legal challenge because Alabama refused to recognize Searcy as the adoptive parent of an 8-year-old boy whom McKeand conceived through a sperm donor and gave birth. The couple, who have been together for 14 years, raised the boy as their son.

Alabama insisted Searcy could not be the adoptive parent of the boy since under state laws, they are not a couple.

In seeking a hold on the federal court decision, Strange argued that same-sex unions recognized temporarily but could be eventually be declared not consistent with Alabama law, if the Supreme Court decides against gay marriages, would result in widespread confusion.

However, legal experts believe the Supreme Court would favor same-sex marriage in a landmark decision. The Crimson quotes Harvard Law professor Richard Fallon who forecast five justices would vote to uphold the right to gay marriage.

Fallon and two more Harvard professors, Charles Fried and Michael Klarman, named Justice Anthony Kennedy as the likely swing vote in the hot issue.

A state statute and a constitutional amendment approved by 81 percent of Alabama voters in 2006 are the basis of the state in not recognizing gay marriages.

Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard criticized the judge's decision. "It is outrageous when a single unelected and unaccountable federal judge can overturn the will of millions of Alabamians who stand in firm support of the Sanctity of Marriage Act," AP quotes Hubbard.

Tagssame-sex marriage court ruling, Alabama