Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt says his vigorous defense of the state’s gay marriage ban is designed to get a final U.S. Supreme Court ruling on whether such bans are constitutional.

Schmidt said in an Associated Press interview Wednesday that everyone is best served by a definitive ruling from the high court.

The attorney general said that without such a ruling, uncertainty will remain about whether gay marriage legal throughout the state and whether gay couples’ unions will remain legally valid.

The U.S. Supreme Court has blocked the state from enforcing its gay marriage ban while a lawsuit moves through the federal courts. Couples have wed in some but not all of the state’s 105 counties.

Gay-rights advocate Tom Witt says Schmidt’s argument is pointless.