US Supreme Court deliberates on same-sex marriage

US SUPREME Court justices have signalled that they are reluctant to embrace a broad ruling finding a fundamental right to marriage for gays and lesbians across the United States.

As sign-waving demonstrators massed outside yesterday, the court completed more than an hour of oral argument on whether to let a California ban on same-sex marriage stand without indicating a clear path forward.

None of the nine justices indicated support for the Obama administration’s favoured solution, which would strike down California’s Proposition 8 and require the other eight states that already recognise civil unions or domestic partnerships to allow gays and lesbians to marry.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The California case is one of two challenges to laws barring gay marriage the Supreme Court is hearing this week. Today, it will hear the first challenge it has accepted to the 1996 federal Defence of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

Recent polls suggest a rapidly growing number of Americans support allowing same-sex couples to marry, but there is no guarantee that the conservative-leaning court will rule in a similar direction.