PROVIDENCE — The Rhode Island Supreme Court says it needs more information before it can decide if the state Family Court has jurisdiction to hear a same-sex divorce case involving two Providence women who married in Massachusetts.

The case involving Margaret R. Chambers and Cassandra B. Ormiston represents the first time a same-sex couple has sought a divorce in Rhode Island; it’s also believed to mark the first time any of the 8,000 same-sex couples married in Massachusetts have sought a divorce in another state.

Last month, Chief Family Court Judge Jeremiah S. Jeremiah Jr. asked the Supreme Court if he had jurisdiction to hear the case.

The Supreme Court responded yesterday: “After due reflection and discussion, we have decided that it would be premature for us to respond to the certified question at this time and that additional proceedings should take place in the Family Court prior to our determination of whether this court should hereafter respond.”

In remanding the matter to Rhode Island Family Court, the Supreme Court directed it to address a host of questions, some of which include: Was a Massachusetts marriage license issued to the parties? Where was each of the parties living at the time that they applied for a Massachusetts marriage license? Did each of the parties reside in Rhode Island at the time of the application for a Massachusetts marriage license? If so, for how long had each resided in Rhode Island?

Jeremiah, who was out of his office yesterday recuperating from a leg injury, said in a phone interview from his home that he expects to speak to the parties by conference call today and will give each side two to three weeks to collect the documentation the Supreme Court requested. Jeremiah will ask that each side write a brief in the case and he will probably write one himself, he said. That material will go to the Supreme Court.

“I think the Supreme Court was right in requesting that information and I’m going to provide it to them,” Jeremiah said. “I want to get on this immediately.”

The question Jeremiah posed to the Supreme Court last month is whether Family Court has jurisdiction to hear a divorce case between people of the same sexwho were married in Massachusetts and live in Rhode Island.

Chambers, 70, and Ormiston, 59, married in Fall River in May 2004, shortly after Massachusetts became the first state in the nation to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Rhode Island law does not explicitly prohibit or allow same-sex marriages, so attention has focused on whether Rhode Island courts would conclude there is local jurisdiction to handle the divorce case.

With reports from staff writer Mark Arsenault

kbramson@projo.com