The highest court in Massachusetts on Thursday ruled that city and town clerks may not issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples from out of state.

“The laws of this commonwealth have not endowed nonresidents with an unfettered right to marry,” Justice Francis Spina wrote for the majority in the 38-page Supreme Judicial Court opinion. “Only nonresident couples who come to Massachusetts and intend to reside in this commonwealth thereafter can be issued a marriage license.”

In two separate opinions, six justices ruled against eight same-sex couples and 13 town clerks who challenged a 1913 law that bars couples from out of state from marrying in Massachusetts if their unions would not be recognized in their home states. Only one member of the court, Justice Robert Ireland, dissented.

The little-known statute from 1913 was drafted at a time when Massachusetts permitted mixed-race couples to marry, but most other states did not.

Gov. Mitt Romney, a vocal opponent of gay and lesbian marriage, invoked the provision in 2004 when Massachusetts became the only state to allow same-sex marriage.

“This is an important victory for those of us who wanted to preserve traditional marriage and to make sure that the mistake of Massachusetts doesn’t become the mistake of the entire country,” Romney said Thursday.