It has been less than a month since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act and gay activists are already heading to court to challenge traditional marriage laws in several states.

According to the News & Record, The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced on Tuesday that it will try to use a federal case that is already pending in the courts to strike down North Carolina's traditional marriage amendment which was passed by voters just last year. The case involves North Carolina's ban on second-parent adoption which involves six couples.

Supporters of the ban say the ACLU is trying to undercut the will of the people who passed the amendment by a wide margin.

Tami Fitzgerald, the executive director of the N.C. Values Coalition, told the News & Record that it would be “a miscarriage of justice” to amend the adoption suit since it’s “totally unrelated to the marriage amendment.”

The ACLU has also announced that it has filed a lawsuit in federal court this week on behalf of 23 Pennsylvania residents who wish to marry in the state or to have their out-of-state marriages recognized by the state. The suit alleges that the state's Defense of Marriage Act violates their fundamental right to marry, as well as the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

They are also targeting Virginia's 2006 constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and are planning to challenge the law in federal court.

“Thousands of Virginia couples are already living the deep commitment associated with marriage, without legal recognition of their relationships. They and their children deserve the legal protections that come with state-recognized marriage,” ACLU of Virginia Executive Director Claire G. Gastañaga told the Richmond Times Dispatch.

“There is no rational reason for denying these loving couples the freedom to marry and every reason to grant them the same recognition by civil authorities that opposite-sex couples have,” Gastañaga said.

Supporters of traditional marriage were not surprised by the move but say the Supreme Court didn't give them the definitive ruling they sought.

"Make no mistake – this was a major defeat for advocates of same-sex marriage who asked the Supreme Court to find a constitutional right to marriage and impose their definition on fifty states," said Victoria Cobb, president of the Family Foundation of Virginia.

"Same-sex marriage advocates did not receive the constitutional affirmation they were seeking and the ACLU today continues to push for what the U.S. Supreme Court did not grant."

She added: "Marriage redefinition was rejected overwhelmingly by Virginia citizens at the ballot and by the Virginia General Assembly time and time again; and today, the ACLU is attempting to subvert the will of the people through marriage redefinition by judicial fiat."

In the meantime, Reuters is reporting that gay activists are targeting four U.S. states this year where legislative measures to legalize same-sex marriage have either failed, or where there is a ballot measure banning the unions scheduled for this November.

Those states are Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey and Oregon.

Advocates of traditional marriage say these plans are overly optimistic.

"They're hugely overplaying their hand," said Thomas Peters, a spokesman for the National Organization for Marriage.

"These are states where gay marriage advocates have been saying for months, if not years, that gay marriage is inevitable and they've made no progress."

Activists say they're also targeting Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, Nevada and New Mexico in 2015 and 2016 with the hopes of winning the right for homosexuals to marry.

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