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January 16, 2015

Finally. The U.S. Supreme Court Will Review Same Sex Marriage Rights

The Supreme Court has accepted four cases from the Sixth Circuit where a decision in November 2014 upheld bans on marriage or marriage-recognition in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee. One case each will come from those four states.

The court will consider only two questions:

  • Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex?
  • Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-state?

The Kentucky case (Bourke v. Beshear) raises both of the issues that the Court will be deciding, the Michigan case (DeBoer v. Snyder) deals only with marriage, and the Ohio (Obergefell v. Hodges) and Tennessee cases (Tanco v. Haslam) deal only with the recognition question. If customary practice is followed, the first case listed in the order — the Ohio case Obergefell v. Hodges — will become the historic title for the final ruling.

Plaintiffs' briefs are due February 27; defense briefs are due March 27; reply briefs from the plaintiffs are due April 17. The actual hearing will take place between April 20 and 29.

Filed under Gay Issues | permalink | January 16, 2015 at 09:16 PM

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