The 5-4 ruling, which left any action on the state's 1998 Defense of Marriage Act to the state Legislature or the initiative process, also surprised gay-marriage opponents who had expected to lose the court case in liberal-leaning Washington state.

It was the latest in a series of significant court rulings against gay marriage. New York's high court dealt gay couples a similar blow earlier this month when it ruled that a state law limiting marriage to between a man and a woman was constitutional.

Disappointment in Wednesday's decision was perhaps greatest in liberal Seattle, home of the state's most visible gay community and the source of one of the original lawsuits seeking marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples.

"There aren't words to describe how hurt people in the gay and lesbian community are. There's a lot of tears and a lot of anger right now. Emotion is raw," said state Rep. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, the senior of four openly gay state lawmakers.

The state Supreme Court overruled two lower courts that had found the state law, which limits marriage to opposite-sex couples, violated the state constitution.

However, three majority justices invited the state Legislature to take another look at the gay marriage ban's effect on same-sex couples.

"Given the clear hardship faced by same-sex couples evidenced in this lawsuit, the Legislature may want to re-examine the impact of the marriage laws on all citizens of this state," wrote Justice Barbara Madsen, with Justice Charles Johnson and Chief Justice Gerry Alexander concurring.

The two other justices in the majority, James Johnson and Richard Sanders, more actively opposed gay marriage, saying the Legislature had "a compelling governmental interest in preserving the institution of marriage, as well as the healthy families and children it promotes," Johnson wrote. "This conclusion may not be changed by mere passage of time or currents of public favor and surely not changed by courts."

Momentum for altering the law should be hard to find at the Capitol. Legislative majority leaders and Gov. Chris Gregoire - all Democrats - did not see any consensus on the issue, and leading Republicans praised the status quo.

As Gregoire noted, lawmakers barely passed a gay civil-rights bill this year after nearly 30 years of failed attempts.

For her part, the governor offered support for extending marriage-like civil rights and protections to same-sex couples, saying the current arrangement amounts to discrimination.

But she pointedly did not offer to take the lead, and clearly does not want state government interfering with religious perspectives on marriage.

"The sacrament of marriage is between two people and their faith," Gregoire said, recalling her own Roman Catholic nuptials. "It is not the business of the state."

The couples who sued to overturn the law were dismayed at the ruling, but some said there would still be a push for gay marriage rights in the Legislature.

"I believe that our constitution should treat all of its citizens the same, and in this case the court was willing to treat my family differently than other families," said Brenda Bauer of Seattle, who sued along with her longtime partner Celia Castle. "Today's a pretty sad day for our family."

The four-justice minority harshly criticized the ruling.

Justice Mary Fairhurst said the majority improperly bowed to public opinion by upholding the gay-marriage ban.

"Unfortunately, the (majority) are willing to turn a blind eye to DOMA's discrimination because a popular majority still favors that discrimination," Fairhurst wrote.

Nineteen gay and lesbian couples seeking to marry had challenged the constitutionality of Washington's Defense of Marriage Act. Judges in King and Thurston counties overturned it in 2004, citing the state constitution's "privileges and immunities" section.

The state appealed, arguing that it has a legitimate interest in regulating relationships that produce children.

Gay marriage opponents were surprised, but grateful.

"This is more than we could have imagined. We are shocked, and pleasantly shocked. We were prepared for the other direction," said Jon Russell, field director for the conservative Faith and Freedom Network, which intervened in the case.

King County Executive Ron Sims, who helped foster one of the original lawsuits by same-sex couples seeking to marry in Seattle, said his next step would be to push for civil unions.

"There's still hope in the long run," Sims said. "I still dream for a just society."

Forty-five states have laws banning gay marriage or limiting marriage to between a man and a woman.

In other recent rulings on the issue, courts reinstated voter-approved bans on gay marriage in Nebraska and Georgia, and Tennessee's Supreme Court ruled that voters there should have a say on allowing gay marriage.

Massachusetts' high court - the same court that issued the historic ruling that has allowed more than 8,000 same-sex couples since 2004 to marry in that state - ruled a proposed state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage could go on the ballot if approved by the Legislature.

In Connecticut, a judge found gay and lesbian couples had not been harmed by that state's decision to grant them civil unions but not marriage. Vermont also allows civil unions that confer the same legal rights as heterosexual married couples.

Congress recently rebuffed a move to get a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.