A group opposed to gay marriage has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case challenging Nevada's marriage ban.

The Boise, Idaho-based Coalition for the Protection of Marriage filed the request on Wednesday, the AP reported. Its petition, known as a writ of certiorari, asks the high court to take the case before it moves to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

U.S. District Chief Judge Robert Jones last week ruled against plaintiffs challenging the state's 2002 voter-approved constitutional amendment defining marriage as a heterosexual union.

In Sevick v. Sandoval, Jones, a George W. Bush appointee, found that gay men and lesbians do not qualify for protections under the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause because they have not historically faced discrimination.

“Homosexuals have not historically been denied the right to vote, the right to serve on juries, or the right to own property,” Jones wrote.

Jones, who has served as a bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons), also opined in his 41-page ruling that the “perpetuation of the human race” depended on the state's current definition of marriage as a heterosexual union.

The Supreme Court is already considering challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and Proposition 8, California's gay marriage ban. In all of those cases, however, federal judges sided with plaintiffs challenging the laws.