The United States Supreme Court
justices have agreed to decide a major civil rights question: whether same-sex
couples have a right to marry everywhere in America under the Constitution. The court will take up gay-rights
cases that ask it to overturn bans in four states and declare for the entire
nation that people may marry the partners of their choice, regardless of
gender. The cases will be argued in April, and a decision is expected by late
June.
The court chose not to decide this
issue in 2013, even as it struck down part of a federal anti-gay marriage law
that paved the way for a wave of lower court rulings across the country in
favor of same-sex marriage rights. At that time, just 12 states and the
District of Columbia permitted gay and lesbian couples to wed. That number has
jumped to 36, almost all because of lower court rulings.
The appeals before the court come
from gay and lesbian plaintiffs in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee. The
federal appeals court that oversees those four states uphold their same-sex
marriage bans in November, reversing pro-gay rights rulings of federal judges
in all four states. It was the first, and so far only, appellate court to rule
against same-sex marriage since the high court’s 2013 decision.
On the other side, advocates for
traditional marriage want the court to let the political process play out,
rather than have judges order states to allow same-sex couples to marry. In
October, five states asked the court to step in to preserve their bans on
same-sex marriage. The justices declined without an explanation and
subsequently refused to block lower court rulings from taking effect in other
states while appeals were pending. Now there are just 14 states in which
same-sex couples cannot wed.
The court’s decision to get
involved is another marker of the rapid change that has redefined societal
norms in the space of a generation. The court will be weighing in on major gay
rights issues for the fourth time in 27 years. The court will be weighing in on
major gay rights issues for the fourth time in27 years. In the first of those,
in 1986, the court upheld Georgia’s anti-sodomy law in a devastating defeat for
gay rights advocates. But the three subsequent rulings, all written by Justice
Anthony Kennedy, were major victories for gay men and lesbians. In its most
recent case in 2013, the court struck down part of a federal anti-gay marriage
law in a decision that has paved the way for a wave of lower court rulings
across the country in favor of same-sex marriage rights.
The court is extending the time it
usually allots for argument from an hour to two-and-a-half hours. The justices
will consider two related questions. The first is whether the Constitution
requires states to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The other is
whether states must recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.
