The Supreme Court’s historic two-day scrutiny of the issue of same-sex marriage showed the justices as a cautious bunch wary about ruling on a subject that is new to them, especially when it came to the court in two cases weighted down with procedural baggage.
Yet after it was all over, it seemed possible that the court is on the verge of a landmark ruling overturning the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), while it might punt on California’s Proposition 8 by finding that the ballot initiative’s backers lacked standing to defend it.
