After weeks of watching Buffy reruns and working on their tans, the Supreme Court announced today that they will consider the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8 – the law that overturned same-sex marriage in that state.
Declining to hear the law would have instantly reinstated marriage equality in California, but would have side stepped setting a national precedent. The decision on Prop 8 will have broader implications regarding DOMA and the right to the more than thousand benefits married couples have under federal law.
The court also agreed to hear U.S. v. Windsor, Edith Windsor’s challenge to the inheritance taxes she had to pay after the death of her 42-year partner.
The announcement was made from behind closed doors, possibly to hide the carnage of the Jenga game Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia played to decide the final vote.
This article appears in December 7 • 2012.