ext_78281 ([identity profile] iainuki.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] go_team 2004-02-13 01:14 am (UTC)

Re:

I'm not trying to be snarky here, just trying to point out the ramifications. While I applaud the guts of the individuals involved and even to a certain extent those of the politicians (same-sex marriage plays well in SF, but would torpedo many higher-level ambitions), issuing the challenge is the easy part.

For a social/legal issue that has caused the amount of debate same-sex marriage has, the Supreme Court of the US has little say. Marriage law is a state affair and thus will be decided in the state Supreme Courts. The only issues the Supreme Court will have to rule on, if one state grants same-sex marriage rights, as far as I know, are whether all states will be forced to honor same-sex marriages in one state, and whether the federal government can deny the benefits afforded to opposite-sex married couples to same-sex married couples.

I suppose that if you lost a case in a state Supreme Court, you could take it to SCOTUS as a violation of the 14th amendment. I'm not sure how likely a positive outcome is, though; my suspicion is that they would refuse to take the case, leaving the state court's decision standing.

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