Moving Closer To A Supreme Court Decision On Marriage

On Wednesday, the state of Florida joined a growing list of states (17 in all) that have had their bans on same-sex marriage overturned, and are waiting on an  appeals court decision (and ultimately, a Supreme Court decision on the matter). That's because U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hinkle declared Florida's ban on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional. He said:

"When observers look back 50 years from now, the arguments supporting Florida's ban on same-sex marriage, though just as sincerely held, will again seem an obvious pretext for discrimination."

Judge Hinkle stayed his own decision to allow the state to appeal it to a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. And in other news, the United States Supreme Court, also on Wednesday, stayed the decision of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upholding a lower court decision that Virginia's ban on same-sex marriages was unconstitutional. That marks the second stay issued by that court stopping implementation of legal same-sex marriage in a state.

There can be only one reason for the Supreme Court to issue these stays. The Supreme Court is finally, after years of ducking this issue, getting ready to accept one or more cases and make a decision about whether same-sex marriage is protected by the equality guaranteed by the United States Constitution. This brings up the obvious question -- what will the court decide?

I believe the court will have to follow its own precedent, and declare state bans on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional. They decided that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which denied federal benefits to same-sex married couples, was unconstitutional. And if the federal law is unconstitutional, doesn't that mean the state bans are also unconstitutional? Hasn't it been a long-established precedent that all state laws and constitutions must conform to the United States Constitution? How can the federal law (DOMA) be unconstitutional, while the state laws (which do the same thing that DOMA tried to do) are constitutional?

It looks like we are finally starting to move into the endgame on this issue -- where the court will decide whether the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of equal protection under the law applies to all American citizens or not.