Republican Michigan Governor Rick Snyder opposes lifting a stay in the case of a terminally ill gay man who wants his out-of-state marriage recognized.

Bruce Morgan and Brian Merucci, who have been together seven years, married in New York in 2013.

After Kent County Clerk and Register of Deeds Mary Hollinrake refused to recognize their out-of-state marriage license, the couple sued Snyder and Hollinrake, who was later dropped from the suit following an agreement to be bound by the court's decision, MLive reported.

Morgan, who is fighting a diagnosis of terminal brain cancer, and Merucci earlier this month asked U.S. District Judge Gordon Quist to lift the stay in their case and immediately recognize their marriage. Quist had earlier set the case aside pending a Supreme Court decision in a similar case challenging Michigan's ban.

The couple's attorney, Stephanie Myott, argues that the stay is no longer relevant since Snyder has decided against fighting a federal injunction ordering the state to recognize the marriages of 300 gay couples who tied the knot last year. The couples exchanged vows during the 1 day it was legal in Michigan following a federal judge's ruling striking down the ban and an appeals court's decision to stay the ruling. The appeals court eventually overturned the ruling and plaintiffs appealed to the Supreme Court, which will hear arguments in the case next Tuesday, with a ruling expected in June.

In a brief filed Monday, Snyder's lawyers called on Quist to deny the couple's request, saying that the ruling ordering the state to recognize the marriages of those 300 couples did not apply to couples who married outside of Michigan.

“That the couples in Caspar were married in Michigan was a significant part of the court's rationale in finding a violation of due-process; in fact, the court identified the fundamental right at issue as, 'the right to maintain the marital status granted by the state seeking to defeat it,'” lawyers wrote. “Since Plaintiffs were married in New York, the rationale in Caspar is inapplicable. … Plaintiffs' motion should be denied.”

(Brief provided by Equality Case Files.)