A federal judge in Puerto Rico has defied the U.S. Supreme Court’s establishment of “same-sex marriage,” refusing to strike down the commonwealth’s ban.

The San Juan judge, Juan M. Perez-Gimenez, said the U.S. Supreme “had settled the meaning of two clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment – the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses – as they applied to same-sex marriages,” reported Lyle Denniston for SCOTUSblog.com.

“But he said the decision only applied to state governments, and Puerto Rico does not have that status.”

The Alabama Supreme Court upheld an earlier decision banning state officials from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples last week, and while the legal road is far from over for traditional marriage supporters, they believe the facts of the case and the Constitution are on their side.

The fight stems from early 2015, when Alabama justices ruled early in 2015 that probate judges should not obey federal court orders striking down the state’s laws defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.