Chalk up another loss for state Rep. Bob McDermott in the marriage wars.

The Ewa Beach Republican was summarily brushed aside Wednesday by the state Supreme Court, which dismissed his challenge to Hawaii’s Marriage Equality Act for lack of standing. While the dismissal might sound technical, the opinion’s language was significant, said state Attorney General Doug Chin in a statement.

“The most important part of the Supreme Court’s ruling was its conclusion that the ‘Legislature’s decision to extend the right to marry to same-sex couples did not, in any way, diminish the right to marry’ for the plaintiffs or anyone else,” said Chin, quoting from the opinion.

McDermott has been battling marriage equality at the Legislature and in the court system for two years now. While the law was still being debated as a bill in 2013, he unsuccessfully sought an injunction to prevent it from being implemented later. His multiple lawsuits and court actions since then and work in consecutive legislative sessions to undercut the law or put it before voters via a referendum repeal effort have all failed.

He was joined in the latest unsuccessful challenge by Garret Hashimoto of the Hawaii Christian Coalition, anti-gay activist /Ohio lawyer David Langdon and William E.K. Kumia.

Following Wednesday’s decision, McDermott reportedly called the Supreme Court’s decision “cowardly.”