Supreme Court to Decide Whether to Hear Gay Marriage Cases
Posted at 11:45 a.m. on Nov. 26, 2012
The Los Angeles Times reports that the Supreme Court will decide this week whether to hear two cases involving same-sex couples.
“Now, the justices must decide whether to hear an appeal from the defenders of California’s Proposition 8, the 2008 voter initiative that limited marriage to a man and a woman. At the same session Friday, the court will sift through several appeals to decide whether legally married gay couples have a right to equal benefits under federal law. Appeals courts in Boston and New York have struck down the part of the Defense of Marriage Act that denies such a right.”
“If Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joins the other three, the conservatives would have the needed four votes to hear the Proposition 8 case. They may hesitate. To form a majority, they would need Kennedy, the author of the court’s two strongest gay rights rulings… Still, the court’s liberals also may hesitate. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, though a leading women’s rights legal advocate, has said she thought the court made a mistake in the 1970s by moving too fast to declare a national right to abortion.”
