A district judge ruled that Alabama’s ban on same-sex marriage is constitutional, a surprise ruling at the close of business on Friday that caught many off guard.

U.S. District Judge Ginny Granade ruled in the favor of Mobile couple Cari Searcy and Kim McKeand, who had challenged the law that had restricted marriage between a man and a woman., according to an AL.com report.

However, that doesn’t necessarily mean gay couples can immediately head to the courthouse on Monday. The Alabama Attorney General’s Office filed a request for Granade to put the decision on hold until the Supreme Court is able to rule on the issue later this year, a similar strategy to what state officials are attempting in South Dakota after a judge ruled in a similar manner.

Granade hasn’t yet granted the hold, and attorneys believe they will win on appeal, writing that if the action is not stayed, interested parties will suffer “irreparable harm” if marriages that are recognized on an interim basis are ultimately struck down, resulting in confusion with the law.

Judges often put controversial rulings on hold as long as doing so does not significantly harm the winning party, although no one yet knows if this is what Granade will do. Before she makes her ruling, it is possible that gay couples can try to apply for marriage licenses, although it is not clear how county probably officials would handle such requests.

The judge ultimately ruled that the ban violated the 14th amendment’s equal protection clause, which bars the government from treating one group of citizens differently from another, unless there is a case of a “compelling” interest. The attorney general’s office suggested that there were in fact interests on the state’s part, including the promotion of a relationship between children and their biological parents, an argument that Granade was not swayed by, citing a case when the Supreme Court struck down a portion of the Defense of Marriage Act which would deny benefits to same-sex couples in states where it is legal.

She also pointed to cases where laws banning gay sex and interracial marriage were struck down.