Two same-sex marriage challenges dominate two days of arguments in the March session of the U.S. Supreme Court, and, depending on the outcome, those potential landmark cases could define the October 2012-13 term of the Roberts Court.
Hollingsworth v. Perry will be up first before the justices. The case, to be argued March 26, asks whether the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause prohibits California from defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman as state voters did in what is known as Proposition 8. The justices on March 27 will hear U.S. v. Windsor, a challenge to the constitutionality of Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) which defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman for all federal purposes.
The justices have raised standing-jurisdiction questions in both cases.
Supreme Court Brief today examines the parties and lawyers who participated in the nearly 80 amicus briefs filed in the DOMA case.
All of the amicus briefs may be found here.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge John Olson, who was denied federal benefits for his same-sex spouse because of the Defense of Marriage Act, says the law is based on irrational prejudice that equal protection will not tolerate. But New York lawyer Dovid Schwartz contends the law is justified by the government’s legitimate interest in embodying a moral standard that defines the human species.
