The Corbett administration wants the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to settle what it sees as an open question of law—the bearing of a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision on challenges to Pennsylvania’s ban on same-sex marriage.

It has pointed to the high court’s opinion in Baker v. Nelson in the motions to dismiss that it has filed in both federal suits brought in the last few months aimed at dismantling the state’s ban on same-sex marriage.