US Supreme Court to take up same-sex marriage issue

[Admiral Yi]

Is the challenge against prop 8 based on the US constitution or also Californian constitution? If the latter, could they state it is against Californian constitution and as such they do not need to answer the question on the US constitution?

The US Supreme Court doesn't have jurisdiction to rule on issues of California state constitutionality.

[Martinus]

Is the challenge against prop 8 based on the US constitution or also Californian constitution? If the latter, could they state it is against Californian constitution and as such they do not need to answer the question on the US constitution?

The US Supreme Court doesn't have jurisdiction to rule on issues of California state constitutionality.

Ok.

[dps]

It was inevitable once any state had legal gay marriages that the issue would end up before the Supreme Court eventually.  (I'm not saying that DOMA was itself inevitable, but at some point, constitutional questions were going to come up that were going to go all the way to the USSC.)

At this point, I'm guessing that the justices will issue a very narrow, technical opinion in the California case, and a confusing split ruling in the DOMA case, leaving a lot of questions up in the air, so there'll be at least one more case they have to decide on the issue down the road.

I just can't see how DOMA could be seen as constitutional, once you agree that states can regulate marriage.

I didn't say that it would be upheld (though I don't think that it being overturned is the slam dunk that some seem to think it is);  I said that there would be a split ruling.  So maybe 6 justices say it's unconstitutional, but 3 of them sign an opinion that it's unconstitutional because of the equal protection clause, 2 of them sign an opinion that it's unconstitutional because the power to regulate marriage is vested in the states, and 1 says it's unconstitutional because of some other reason.

[Count]

Is the challenge against prop 8 based on the US constitution or also Californian constitution? If the latter, could they state it is against Californian constitution and as such they do not need to answer the question on the US constitution?

The US Supreme Court doesn't have jurisdiction to rule on issues of California state constitutionality.

Ok.

The challenge was based on the US Constitution. The 9th Circuit decision was written deliberately narrowly and followed the reasoning of a 1996 case written by Kennedy (the presumptive swing justice, who wrote the last two major gay rights decisions). The 9th Circuit decision basically said that once a state had gay marriage it couldn't then get rid of it. So the Supreme Court can agree with the 9th Circuit without affecting any state outside of California.

[Neil]

I'm sure that they'll find a way to mandate gay marriage everywhere.  It's only a matter of time, now that we've decided that all conduct it good conduct.

Maybe they'll execute Bradley Manning to make me feel better.