A U.S. appeals court put a San Francisco woman's suit seeking federal benefits for same-sex married couples on hold Friday until the Supreme Court decides whether to review the 1996 law that prohibited those benefits.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco canceled the hearing it had scheduled Sept. 10 in the case of Karen Golinski, a lesbian attorney with the appeals court who had challenged the government's denial of family insurance coverage for her wife.

The court said it would wait to see whether the nation's high court takes the case out of its hands by granting the Obama administration's request for immediate review.