Supreme Court Set To Consider Marriage Equality, Again

Last year came to a close with a lot of action on the marriage equality front. Enough circuit courts struck down enough same-sex marriage bans that our country reached an unprecedented majority— most Americans now live in a state that recognizes the right to marry whomever you love. The downside is that even while the Supreme Court let the circuit court decisions stand, the Justices stopped short of taking up the cases and making a national ruling.

Even with the monumental changes that happened last year, our patchwork of marriage laws are damaging lives, and costing our economy. Countries across the world are recognizing the freedom to marry as a basic, lawful, human right. Here in the US, popular opinion is swinging deeply in favor of moving past the fractious, state-by-state approval of marriage equality to a broad, federal ruling.

With 2015 just a few weeks old, the Supreme Court has once again delayed. Earlier this week, Justices deliberated taking up same-sex marriage cases from around the country, including one from Louisiana that had not yet been heard by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. No mention of any of the cases was made in the Court’s orders, except that the Justices would wait until the Fifth Circuit Court made it’s ruling on the Louisiana case.

Despite the delay, we’re hopeful that we’ll soon see more steps toward progress. The Louisiana case went before the Fifth Circuit Court last week, where a ruling could be made at anytime. Meanwhile, the rest of the cases that the Court passed on earlier this week are scheduled to go back before the Justices today. Stay tuned here as events, and hopefully rulings, develop on this important issue.