ATLANTA - Next week, the Georgia Supreme Court will hear arguments from the state's lawyers defending Georgia's constitutional amendment against gay marriage after a lower court struck it down.

And only one response - a ruling upholding the measure - will prevent Gov. Sonny Perdue from bringing state lawmakers back to Atlanta for a special session and putting the issue back in front of voters in November.

During the 2004 election, 76 percent of Georgia voters approved the amendment. But Fulton Superior Court Judge Constance Russell ruled in May the measure to ban gay marriage was presented incorrectly to voters. She did not rule on the issue of allowing gay couples to marry, but she said the ballot wording violated the state constitution's single-subject rule because it required voters to decide on marriage and civil unions in a single amendment.

On June 27, state attorneys will argue that the issues were all related enough to be covered in a single ballot question.

University of Georgia law professor Chuck O'Kelley and his wife, Judi, along with St. Johns Missionary Baptist Church in Brunswick, two other religious leaders and two Democratic state legislators, filed the initial lawsuit questioning how the amendment was presented to voters.

The political and legal wrangling over how to define marriage and the rights of same-sex couples is not confined to Georgia, however. Other states are weighing the same issue. On June 7, the U.S. Senate rejected a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage by a wide margin. The measure did not receive enough votes to move it forward, leaving supporters of the idea to focus efforts on state-level bans where there has been strong support among voters.

"In 2004, there were 10 other states that had similar constitutional amendments on their ballots, and all of them passed," said Charles Bullock, a political scientist at the University of Georgia. "It's something that a lot of people get upset about."

Seven more states have proposed putting amendments to ban gay marriage on their ballots this year. Georgia could be on that list again if Mr. Perdue follows through with his promise to have legislators regroup in August if the state Supreme Court tosses the amendment or fails to rule by Aug. 7.

Georgia lawmakers jumped on the debate in 2004 to add a constitutional block - as many other states did - soon after seeing Massachusetts' courts open the door there for same-sex marriages.

Mr. Bullock said if the issue returns to the Legislature in an August special session, he expects even more legislators to vote for the referendum than last time.

That includes lawmakers who previously said it was unnecessary because Georgia already has a law in place banning gay marriage by defining marriage as being only between a man and a woman.

"Some of them, in light of the overwhelming support that the electorate gave to the idea will back it," Mr. Bullock said. "If you look at the legislators who voted against the amendment in 2004, it was overwhelmingly members of the black caucus, yet many of their own constituents are quite conservative on the issue."

In all 19 states where a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage has been proposed, voters have approved it.

Sadie Fields, state chairwoman for the Christian Coalition of Georgia, said liberal-leaning states have adopted the language as well.

"Even Oregon in 2004, it passed 57 percent," she said. "People want marriage to be protected as it's always been defined between a man and a woman. We do not want the door open to any other form of marriage."

But gay-rights groups say that while they have been unable to persuade voters against the bans, they have managed to stop some amendments before they make it to ballots.

"We still have defeated more of these in the legislatures than they have passed," said Carrie Evans, state legislative director for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender advocacy group. "In 2004, we had 14 defeated. This year, we defeated eight (bills) in the Legislature and probably another five by the end of the year."

She pointed to some of the unexpected consequences from bans adopted two years ago as reasons why she thinks lawmakers and ultimately voters will take a closer look.

For example, courts in Ohio this year ruled that the state's amendment banning gay marriage meant that domestic violence laws do not cover unmarried couples, whether they are same sex or not.