US Supreme Court to rule on key equal marriage cases on Wednesday

Jun 25 2013
Written by Joseph McCormick

Illustrated rainbow pride flag on a pink background.

The US Supreme Court has added Wednesday as the final day of opinions for this session, and is expected to give decisions on two key equal marriage cases.

After numerous days of non-decisions in the cases, incuding today, which was extra, the court has added Wednesday as a final day for this term.

On the first day of hearings in March, the court heard arguments around Proposition 8, the state of California’s ban on equal marriage. Then the justices questioned the meaning of marriage, and challenged arguments for the ban.

On the second day of hearings, several of the Supreme Court Justices raised concerns around DOMA, and some took that as a sign that there may be a narrow majority who will strike it down.

There are a number of possible outcomes, which range from effectively allowing equal marriage across the US, to letting Proposition 8 and DOMA stand.

PinkNews.co.uk has compiled a short history of Proposition 8 legislation and a breakdown of the six possible outcomes the court might make.

As the law is fluid, there is an unpredictable number of combinations of rulings in the two cases.

It is unclear which ruling the Supreme Court will make, with some arguing it is likely to strike down Prop 8, and others arguing that there is a long battle ahead until equal marriage is legal across the US.

At the weekend, Supreme Court Justice Anton Scalia spoke out to say the court should not be ruling on such a “moral” issue. Some have taken this a possible sign that the court will rule in the favour of same-sex couples.