The ruling goes into effect on March 9. Nebraska officials have filed notice that they will be appealing the decision.

Susan Waters, left, and Sally Waters walk away from federal court in Omaha, Neb., after a hearing in their case challenging the state's same-sex marriage ban on Feb. 19, 2015.

Nati Harnik / AP

WASHINGTON — A federal judge struck down Nebraska's ban on same-sex couples' marriages on Monday — although the injunction requiring marriage equality does not go into effect until March 9.

"The State clearly has the right to encourage couples to marry and provide support for one another. However, those laws must be enforced equally and without respect to gender," U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Bataillon wrote. "It is time to bring this unequal provision to an end."

State officials already filed a notice with Bataillon's court that they will be appealing the decision to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The 8th Circuit already has appeals pending of rulings striking down marriage bans in Arkansas, Missouri, and South Dakota. The court has tentatively scheduled arguments on those cases for the week of May 11.

Additionally, though, Nebraska officials stated in their notice of appeal that they "will be pursuing emergency relief in the Court of Appeals" — presumably a request that Bataillon's injunction be stayed pending the outcome of the state's appeal or of the pending appeals already before the appeals court.

It was not immediately clear from the other marriage cases how the 8th Circuit would deal with the issue in the Nebraska case.

The 8th Circuit has not faced a situation like that now coming to it from Nebraska. This is the first decision in the circuit in which the trial court judge's decision would allow — beginning March 9 — marriages to take place for same-sex couples during the state's appeal.

In Arkansas and South Dakota, federal judges, in issuing their rulings striking down the bans, also stayed — or put on hold — their rulings pending any appeal from state officials.

In Missouri, however, the same-sex couples challenging the ban asked the 8th Circuit to lift a stay put in place by the district court. The 8th Circuit denied the request, and the same-sex couples filed a second request to lift the stay on Feb. 9 — the day the U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay request made by state officials in Alabama's marriage case. The 8th Circuit is yet to rule on that request.

Read the injunction: