SCOTUS to Hear Marriage Equality Arguments

Today, the United States Supreme Court will begin to hear arguments in the Prop 8 case:

A four-year legal battle to extend the right of marriage to same-sex couples no matter where they live gets its moment before the Supreme Court on Tuesday in historic oral arguments difficult to imagine even a decade ago.

The first of two days of oral arguments over what supporters call marriage equality brings the boldest of the claims that gay rights activists will make — that there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage that states may not deny.

The nine justices will consider California's Proposition 8, which voters passed in 2008 to define marriage as between a man and woman and to overturn a state Supreme Court decision earlier that year that approved same-sex marriage.

...The U.S. Supreme Court's affirmation of [the 9th circuit appeals court] decision would limit the impact to California.

But those are not the only options before the nine justices. They could conclude that the Constitution is silent on the issue and that California voters were within their rights to write into the state constitution a traditional definition of marriage.

They could also decide that the issue is not properly before the court. Because California's political leaders disagree with Prop 8 and have chosen not to defend it, the court will have to decide whether proponents of the measure may be the ones to do so.

If not, the state probably will be free to again issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Tomorrow, the Court will also hear arguments challenging the constitutionality of DOMA.

I don't have much to say, beyond reiterating my full and unequivocal support for full marriage equality with the unqualified extension of all rights and privileges conferred by different-sex marriage (e.g. immigration rights). I desperately want the Court to do the right thing. Marriage equality is not the final frontier in full equality for all members of the queer community, but it's really fucking important to a lot of people, and it's time to get this done. It has always been the right thing to do, even before there was majority support for it.