The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Tuesday morning on the meaning of marriage.
Two California couples challenging Proposition 8, the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, say it excludes gay and lesbian couples from an institution with a deep and distinctive meaning and thus violates the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection.
Defenders of the ban say that states should be able to work out for themselves whether to permit same-sex marriage. The Constitution is silent on the question, they say, and the court should not intervene in the vigorous debate playing out across the nation.
Nine states and the District of Columbia allow gay and lesbian couples to marry. Polls show that a majority of Americans support same-sex marriage, suggesting that further gains are likely in state legislatures and at the ballot box.
The trends lend support to both sides. The ban’s challengers ask the court to provide leadership in cementing victories in what they call the civil rights issue of the day. Its defenders counter that the increase in the number of states that allow same-sex marriage shows that the democratic process is working and that the court should not interfere.
The case, Hollingsworth v. Perry, No. 12-144, was filed in 2009 by Theodore B. Olson and David Boies, two lawyers who were on opposite sides in the Supreme Court’s decision in Bush v. Gore, which settled the 2000 presidential election. They argued that California voters had violated the federal Constitution the previous year when they approved Proposition 8, overriding a decision of the state’s Supreme Court allowing same-sex marriages. [READ MORE]
