Gay marriage advocates, hoping for constitutional recognition of their right to wed, encountered a cautious and sometimes skeptical U.S. Supreme Court during arguments Tuesday on California’s same-sex marriage ban.
The arguments were the court’s first substantive review of whether the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment requires states to include same-sex couples in the fundamental right of marriage. In the end, several justices, perhaps even a majority, appeared to be searching for a narrow way to decide the case or to dispose of it without a decision on the merits.
