The United States Supreme Court will review four same-sex marriage cases, including two from Kentucky involving five gay couples. After a federal judge ruled that Kentucky’s ban on same-sex marriage, approved by voters by a 3-1 margin in 2004, was unconstitutional, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the ruling in November.
That ruling also dealt with cases out of Ohio, Michigan, and Tennessee. Prior to the Sixth Circuit’s hearing of the case in Cincinnati, hundreds attended a rally supporting the couples.
You can read about the plaintiffs in the case by clicking here.
US Attorney General Eric Holder issued a statement Friday in support of same-sex marriage. “(W)e expect to file a ‘friend of the court’ brief in these cases that will urge the Supreme Court to make marriage equality a reality for all Americans,” Holder said. “It is time for our nation to take another critical step forward to ensure the fundamental equality of all Americans—no matter who they are, where they come from, or whom they love.”
In June of 2013, the Supreme Court struck down the core of the Defense of Marriage Act and same-sex marriage has become legal in several states since.Â
From SCOTUSblog:
Although the Court said explicitly that it was limiting review to the two basic issues, along the way the Justices may have to consider what constitutional tests they are going to apply to state bans, and what weight to give to policies that states will claim to justify one or the other of the bans.
In a part of the order that was not entirely clear, the Court instructed lawyers to limit their written and oral arguments to the specific issues they had raised in taking the cases to the Court. However, that apparently meant that couples seeking to marry can only raise that issue, and couples seeking official recognition of their existing marriages can only argue that question.
One issue that this instruction did remove from the cases was a plea, raised by Tennessee couples, that a ban on same-sex marriage interferes with their constitutional right to travel. That was not one of the two questions the Court set for review.
Proponents of same-sex marriage said they expect the court to settle the matter once and for all with a decision that invalidates state provisions that define marriage as between a man and a woman, Yahoo News reported.
-Staff report
Photo:Â Rally in Cincinnati for same-sex marriage cases/RCN file
