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MADISON, Wis. (AP) ― Lawyers representing Gov. Jim Doyle, a gay rights group and several gay couples said they would ask the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday to reject a challenge to the state's new domestic partnership registry.

Members of a social conservative group filed a lawsuit in July claiming the registry violates the constitutional ban on gay marriage and civil unions approved by voters in 2006. They asked the Supreme Court to take the case immediately, bypassing trial and appeals courts, because of its statewide significance.

The Supreme Court is considering whether to take the case and had ordered the state to respond by Tuesday. At least four justices have to agree to do so.

Madison attorney Lester Pines, hired by Doyle to defend the registry after Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen refused, said he planned to argue there were so many facts in dispute that a trial court should consider it first.

Lawyers for Fair Wisconsin, the group that lobbied lawmakers to create the registry this year, and the American Civil Liberties Union said they would echo that argument. ACLU said it will ask the court to represent several gay couples in defending the registry.

Since Fair Wisconsin and ACLU are not parties to the case, they have to ask the court to allow them to intervene. The plaintiffs in the case, members of Wisconsin Family Action, have not decided whether to oppose the requests, lawyer Jim Campbell said.

Nine-hundred seventy couples have been added to the registry since the law went into effect in August, according to the Department of Health Services. Registering gives them limited benefits such as the right to visit each other in the hospital, take medical leave to care for an ill partner and inherit assets when a partner dies.

Fair Wisconsin, which led the opposition to the 2006 amendment, is being represented in the case by the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a New York-based gay rights group.

Supporters of the registry note the benefits and legal protections that it offers fall short of those given to married couples. Registered couples do not enjoy the right to jointly file taxes, the benefits associated with joint marital property, or the rights and benefits associated with divorce law, among other things.

"To suggest that these few protections granted to same-sex couples and their families resemble the much revered status of marriage is preposterous," Lambda Legal attorney Christopher Clark said in a statement.

But Van Hollen and other critics say the law is unconstitutional because the new relationships created are "substantially similar" to marriage, which was outlawed by the 2006 amendment. They focus on the similarities in the process and qualifications to apply for the registry and a marriage license.

Clark, the Fair Wisconsin attorney, said he wants to show how voters were told in 2006 the amendment would not prohibit domestic partner benefits. Such fact-finding is best done at the trial court level, he said.

Clark said he rejected the argument the case should be expedited to the high court so same-sex couples can know sooner whether their relationships are valid. He said there was no emergency for the court to act now.

"Same-sex couples are going to be better served by having a deliberate presentation of the evidence that lays out their case as opposed to rushing to judgment," he said. "We believe the history and evidence is squarely on our side."

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