The Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, will not review a lower court's decision involving a lesbian marriage. In the case of Martinez v. Monroe, a lower court ruled in February that out-of-state marriages are recognized in New York. Monroe County appealed the decision. Patricia Martinez, a Monroe Community College employee, filed the suit after health-care benefits were denied to her wife. The couple married in Canada in 2004.

Today, the Court of Appeals chose not to hear the county's appeal because of a technicality, says Jennifer Carnig, a spokesperson for NYCLU.

"The reason they decided not to hear the case is because the damages between the Martinez family and Monroe Community College have not been resolved," says Carnig. "That doesn't look like it will happen anytime soon."

The decision, says Carnig, means that the lower court's ruling, which recognizes out-of-state marriages, stands.

But the ruling, though it is good news for same-sex couples, still leaves the issue of marriage unsettled in New York. Until a law is passed in the New York State Legislature, there is the possibility that another court decision could undo the Martinez v. Monroe decision.

City first published an earlier version of this story based on initial information from the NYCLU. Updated information followed, and City removed the earlier version.