Nearly a decade after Missouri voters approved a constitutional ban on same-sex marriages in Missouri, the City of St. Louis had decided to put up a challenge.

On Wednesday night, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay joined four LGBT couples in marriage ceremonies at City Hall. Marriage licenses were given by St. Louis Recorder of Deeds Sharon Q. Carpenter.

“The City issues thousands of licenses ever year. What makes these four licenses special is that they are first issued in the State of Missouri to couples of the same-sex,” Mayor Francis Slay said in a statement.

Slay said it was the city’s belief that the U.S. Constitution requires recognition of same-sex marriages, and that Missouri law requires the city to give marriage license to any couple who is “legally entitled” to such a license.

“We have created a clear, direct legal challenge to Missouri’s unconstitutional ban on marriage equality. We hope to get this before the courts to settle this issue on behalf of all gay and lesbian people in our state,” he said.

Almost immediately after the marriages were announced, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster announced a legal challenge to block the St. Louis City Recorder of Deeds from issuing marriage licenses until two other cases regarding the constitutionality of Missouri’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages is resolved.

“This question will likely be fully answered by our Missouri courts within the next 12-18 months,” he said in a statement.

St. Louis’s action puts Koster, the likely Democratic nominee for governor in 2016, in an awkward spot: On one hand, his constitutional duty is to defend the state’s constitution in court. On the other, he’s made clear his support for equal rights for same sex couples. In a statement Thursday, he tried to lay out his dilemma.

“While I personally support the goal of marriage equality, my duty as Attorney General is to defend the laws of the state of Missouri. While many people in Missouri have changed their minds regarding marriage equality, Missourians have yet to change their constitution,” he said. “Regardless of my personal support for marriage equality, such vital questions cannot be decided by local county officials acting in contravention of state law.”

Last year, Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon announced he would accept tax returns from LGBT couples in Missouri, following in the footsteps of a similar announcement from the Internal Revenue Service. In a statement Thursday, Nixon spokesman Scott Holste said the governor “believes that the voters of Missouri should revisit this issue, and when that occurs, he would support recognizing same-sex marriages.”