DENVER (AP) — When the U.S Supreme Court struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act exactly one year ago, it stopped short of saying states cannot ban gay marriage. But in a string of 17 straight rulings, judges have argued the high court’s decision in U.S. vs Windsor means just that: States cannot get in the way of gay couples who want to marry. The most significant of those findings came Wednesday when the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver became the first appellate court to weigh in post-Windsor and upheld a ruling that found Utah’s gay marriage ban was unconstitutional.