By The Law Offices of Ronald H. Kauffman of Ronald H. Kauffman, P.A. posted in Same Sex Marriage & Divorce on Monday, January 19, 2015.
It’s on! Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to hear DeBoer v. Snyder – the only one of five U.S. Court of Appeals cases won by the anti-gay marriage side. Same-sex marriage and divorce law is in chaos. That is about to end.
In November, after the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the bans on same-sex marriages in DeBoer v. Snyder, I noted that the other circuit courts had come out the other way.
That created a circuit split in our country, a necessary element to invoke U.S. Supreme Court jurisdiction. I predicted we could have a U.S. Supreme Court decision this summer. Friday the high court said:
CERTIORARI GRANTED
The cases are consolidated and the petitions for writs of certiorari are granted limited to the following questions:
1) Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex?
2) Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-state?
The briefs of petitioners are to be filed on or before February 27, 2015, so the briefing schedule indicates that the Court will hear oral argument and decide the cases by the end of June – this Term.
The decision to grant certiorari will finally end the uncertainty of status, and the interstate chaos, that the current differences in state laws created.
With Florida’s inability to extend the stay banning same-sex marriages, and a combination of other judicial decisions and legislative changes in other states, there are now 36 states that recognize same-sex marriage.
But, we will have to wait until this summer to see which of the various Constitutional arguments the justices agree on.
The U.S. Supreme Court Order is here.