[JURIST] AP is reporting that the Georgia Supreme Court [official website] has upheld the state's ban on same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive] contained in a 2004 constitutional amendment [text]. In May, a lower court judge ruled the ban unconstitutional [order, PDF; JURIST report] because the amendment violated the single-subject rule, which prohibits voters from deciding more than one issue at a time. Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue appealed the ruling and the state high court agreed to hear expedited arguments [JURIST reports] in the case.

In a unanimous decision, the Georgia Supreme Court reversed the lower court, ruling that the amendment did not violate the single-subject rule, effectively reinstating Georgia's same-sex marriage ban. The state supreme court has recorded video of oral arguments and appellate briefs in the case. AP has more.

Earlier Thursday, the New York Court of Appeals upheld [ruling, PDF; JURIST report] that state's ban on same-sex marriage.

11:50 AM ET – In the Georgia opinion [PDF text], the court held "that the first sentence of subparagraph (b) of the amendment does not address a different objective than that of the amendment as a whole and does not render the amendment violative of the multiple-subject prohibition of Art. 10, Sec. 1, Par. 2, Ga. Const. 1983," and therefore reversed the trial court's ruling.