US Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Same-Sex Cases

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.