Advocates
and opponents of same-sex marriage have been anxious for once-and-for-all
ruling after Defense of Marriage Act was struck down in 2013
theguardian.com,
Amanda Holpuch in Washington, Friday 16 January 2015
 |
| Doma was struck down in June 2013. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images |
The US
supreme court announced on Friday that it will take up the question of whether
the US constitution grants every American the right to marry whom they choose,
regardless of sex.
In a brief
announcement, the justices said they would take up the issue later this year,
after a narrow ruling last year unexpectedly resulted in state marriage bans
across the country falling in waves on appeal.
Advocates,
opponents and lawmakers have been anxious for a once-and-for-all ruling on the
constitutionality of same-sex marriage in the US after the court in a landmark
ruling struck down key parts of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (Doma) in
June 2013.
The cases
that the court has just agreed to hear, which involve lawsuits in Kentucky,
Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee, will be argued in April, and a decision is
expected by late June.
“We’re
really excited and obviously relieved that that the court will be hearing all
the cases,” said attorney Dana Nessel, who represents the plaintiffs in the
Michigan case. “It’s a great day in the United States today.”
Evan
Wolfson, with pro-same sex marriage advocacy group Freedom to Marry, called the
decision “another giant step toward the freedom to marry the constitution
promises us all”.
Thirty-six
states and the District of Columbia currently recognize same-sex marriages. A
judge this week struck down South Dakota’s ban, which would make it the 37th,
but that decision was immediately stayed upon appeal.
US attorney
general Eric Holder said Friday that his Justice Department would likely weigh
in with the supreme court on the side of legalizing same-sex marriage
throughout the country.
“We expect
to file a ‘friend of the court’ brief in these cases that will urge the supreme
court to make marriage equality a reality for all Americans,” Holder said in a
statement. “It is time for our nation to take another critical step forward to
ensure the fundamental equality of all Americans – no matter who they are,
where they come from, or whom they love.”
Randy
Johnson, a plaintiff in the Kentucky case with his partner Paul Campion, said
he was elated by the court’s announcement.
“Like any
other family we do value love and togetherness, we have hopes, dreams,
concerns, worries as families across the country and we certainly hope the
court issues a uniform marriage equality ruling so that families like ours
receive equal protection under the law,” he said.
He learned
that the case was getting picked up while at work, when he received a message
from their lawyer that said: “We are going to Washington.”
“We believe
that the high court will decide in the spirit of fairness, we believe that the
justices will recognize how unjust it is to deny our families the rights an
privileges as well as responsibilities of other families,” Johnson said.
Because
Johnson and Campion do not have the same rights as married couples in Kentucky,
they each have adopted two of their four children. “We have to constantly be
aware which child belongs to which parent and that is completely unnecessary,”
said Johnson.
That the
nation’s highest court is even taking up the issue suggests some confidence
from its four liberal justices that Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is regarded as
the court’s swing vote, is leaning towards marriage equality.
Kennedy
authored the June 2013 decision that struck down parts of Doma. Then-president
Bill Clinton signed Doma into law in 1996, barring same-sex married couples
from accessing the same federal rights and benefits as heterosexual married
couples.
Following
the supreme court’s ruling, which also struck down California’s controversial
ban on same-sex marriage, the practice became legal in 13 states and Washington
DC. By this time last year, it was legal in 17 states and DC, with courts juststarting to rule against state bans, putting the cases en route to the
appellate courts. This swiftness surprised nearly everyone tied to the issue.
After the
decision was reached, same-sex marriage advocates quickly challenged state bans
and filed documents to speed up already existing cases.
One of the
court’s liberal justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, had previously indicated the
court would consider a case on the issue if the appellate circuits were to
disagree with each other on it. That happened in November, when the sixth circuit court of appeals upheld several state bans, putting it at odds with
four other appellate courts that ruled to strike down bans.
Cases
consolidated before the supreme court will hear them
The
historic decision to review the constitutionality of gay marriage was, as is
often the case with the supreme court, buried in an innocuous-looking statement
released just as much of Washington was packing up for the weekend.
It
describes how the nine justices have decided to consolidate a number of
different state level appeals into one case that will be split into two
questions: does the 14th amendment of the constitution (granting equal
protection to citizens under the law) force states to licence marriage between
two people of the same sex, and secondly are they obliged to recognise
marriages in other states if not?
Though
seemingly simple questions, for which the court has allocated just two and a
half hours of oral arguments, such a consolidation has long been the wish of
gay rights campaigners who hope it will finally help settle the patchwork of
competing legal precedents into one national law.
Petitioners
and respondents – in this case mostly civil rights campaigners and Republican
governors – have until February 27 and March 27 respectively to file their
arguments with the court and then a further month to respond to each other.
This
suggests the court will get to the case in plenty of time before it closes for
the summer holiday in July and may also produce its final ruling by then.
Dan Roberts
contributed reporting from Washington
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| The court’s decision was made on Monday morning. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP |
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"The Akashic Circle" – Jul 17, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Religion, The Humanization of God, Benevolent Design, DNA, Akashic Circle, (Old) Souls, Gaia, Indigenous People, Talents, Reincarnation, Genders, Gender Switches, In “between” Gender Change, Gender Confusion, Shift of Human Consciousness, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)
Old souls, let me tell you something. If you are old enough, and many of you are, you have been everything. Do you hear me? All of you. You have been both genders. All of you have been what I will call between genders, and that means that all of you have had gender switches. Do you know what happens when it's time for you to switch a gender? We have discussed it before. You'll have dozens of lifetimes as the same gender. You're used to it. It's comfortable. You cannot conceive of being anything else, yet now it's time to change. It takes approximately three lifetimes for you to get used to it, and in those three lifetimes, you will have what I call "gender confusion."
It isn't confusion at all. It's absolutely normal, yet society often will see it as abnormal. I'm sitting here telling you you've all been through it. All of you. That's what old souls do. It's part of the system. …”
“… Gender Switching
Old souls, let me tell you something. If you are old enough, and many of you are, you have been everything. Do you hear me? All of you. You have been both genders. All of you have been what I will call between genders, and that means that all of you have had gender switches. Do you know what happens when it's time for you to switch a gender? We have discussed it before. You'll have dozens of lifetimes as the same gender. You're used to it. It's comfortable. You cannot conceive of being anything else, yet now it's time to change. It takes approximately three lifetimes for you to get used to it, and in those three lifetimes, you will have what I call "gender confusion."
It isn't confusion at all. It's absolutely normal, yet society often will see it as abnormal. I'm sitting here telling you you've all been through it. All of you. That's what old souls do. It's part of the system. …”
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