The U.S. Supreme Court surprised many observers on Monday by announcing it wouldn’t review three federal appeals courts’ decisions striking down state laws banning same-sex marriage.

By so doing, the court passed up the opportunity to make a definitive ruling on the issue that would cover all 50 states.

In the wake of the court’s refusal to take the cases, individual states are assessing their marriage laws and deciding whether to fight to maintain their same-sex marriage bans. At this point, decisions upholding same-sex marriage have been made by various U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals whose districts cover 30 states, including Kansas. Some of those states take the Supreme Court’s decision not to review those rulings as confirmation that their own bans on same-sex marriage are illegal. Other states plan to insist on a specific ruling to determine the validity of their own laws.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, whose district covers Kansas, already has ruled against same-sex marriage bans in Utah and Oklahoma. Although it seems likely that the 10th Circuit Court will apply that same standard to other states in its district, Kansas officials have declared they plan to fight to preserve the state’s constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

Gov. Sam Brownback said Tuesday that the amendment was approved by state voters by a wide margin and that “activist judges should not overrule the people of Kansas.” Attorney General Derek Schmidt noted that no court so far has struck down the Kansas law and the state would deal with any litigation as it comes.

Schmidt’s office apparently won’t have long to wait. The Americans Civil Liberties Union has said a lawsuit could be filed as soon as next week, and several couples already have offered to be part of the lawsuit.

Regardless of which side of this issue Kansans are on, there is reason to question how many financial resources the state should commit to fighting what, at this point, seems like a losing battle. Even if a majority of Kansans oppose same-sex marriage, there seems to be little chance that the state’s law will pass muster in the 10th Circuit.

It’s not entirely clear why the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to take up this issue in its current term. What is clear is that, absent a Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage, this issue is far from settled in many states, including Kansas.