Nine states and the District of Columbia issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, including three states — Maryland, Washington, and Maine — where voters approved it in ballot initiatives last year.
The other 41 states have specific laws blocking gays and lesbians from legally marrying. Of those state, 29 have added bans on same-sex marriage to their constitutions, including California.
Nine of the states that don’t allow same-sex marriage — including California, New Jersey, Illinois, Delaware, Rhode Island and Hawaii — provide legalized domestic partnerships and civil unions for same-sex couples. Those unions, in most cases, give couples the same rights of marriage under state law.
What could be the impact of the Supreme Court?
A decision in both cases is expected later this year.
The legal team challenging Proposition 8 is calling for the Supreme Court to order a stop to marriage discrimination based on sexual orientation, calling it the “defining civil rights issue of our time.” While gay rights groups hope the justices write a sweeping endorsement of marriage equality for homosexual couples, the high court could choose a narrow path.
The narrowest ruling might be to uphold the lower courts — striking down the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8 — by deciding that the parties defending each do not have standing in the cases.
A side argument in the federal case centers on congressional Republicans taking up the cause after the Obama administration declined to defend the law. In the case of Proposition 8, a private group is defending the measure after the state government declined.
A rejection of those parties as defendants could skirt the central issues of same-sex marriage rights.
The justices could strike down DOMA’s limits on federal recognition of same-sex marriage without upholding Proposition 8 and knocking down state-approved same-sex marriage bans. Or, they could decide that DOMA and Proposition 8 are both acceptable as they are, leaving the question of same-sex marriage to the political system.
