"Timing is Favorable" on Same-Sex Marriage Case
With oral arguments expected in April (and a decision in June), we asked Williams Institute's Adam Romero to weigh in on the same-sex marriage case heading toward SCOTUS. Adam, a former WilmerHale lawyer, heads the Institute's federal legal work, including filing amici briefs. Public support for same-sex marriage has doubled since 2000, he says. More than 70% of Americans live in the 36 states where same-sex couples can marry; 14 states still have marriage bans. When the Court decided Loving v. Virginia in '67, 16 states still outlawed interracial marriage. In '14, the Supreme Court allowed numerous judgments in favor of same-sex marriage to go into effect (FL, ID, VA, UT, OK, IN and WI) signaling, "however weakly, that the court will rule that same-sex marriage bans are unconstitutional."
The two issues in the case: whether states must issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, and whether states must recognize same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions. If the Court answers affirmatively on both, Adam says, then we could see same-sex marriage legalized across the entire country. If either or both questions are answered in the negative, we'll continue with a patchwork of states that recognize and perform same-sex marriages.
