The AP:

Backers of California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to overrule a federal appeals court that struck down the measure as unconstitutional.

Lawyers for the coalition of religious conservative groups that sponsored the ban, known as Proposition 8, petitioned the Supreme Court to review the lower court's finding that the 2008 amendment to the state constitution violated the civil rights of gay and lesbian Californians.

The move, which had been expected since a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued its 2-1 decision earlier this year, means the bitter, 4-year-old court fight over the ban could soon be resolved.

...The Supreme Court is expected to act on the petition this fall.