Same-sex couples will be allowed to go ahead with a suit charging that New Jersey is denying them equal protection of law under the U.S. Constitution by limiting them to civil unions rather than marriage.

Mercer County, N.J., Assignment Judge Linda Feinberg on Tuesday reconsidered her prior dismissal of the federal claim, following the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ recent ruling that Proposition 8 violated the 14th Amendment because it was a classification undertaken for its own sake.