Advocates and opponents of same-sex marriage have been anxious for once-and-for-all ruling after Defense of Marriage Act was struck down in 2013

The US supreme court announced on Friday that it will take up the question of whether the US constitution grants every American the right to marry whom they choose, regardless of sex.

In a brief announcement, the justices said they would take up the issue later this year, after a narrow ruling last year unexpectedly resulted in state marriage bans across the country falling in waves on appeal.

Advocates, opponents and lawmakers have been anxious for a once-and-for-all ruling on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage in the US after the court in a landmark ruling struck down key parts of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (Doma) in June 2013.

The cases that the court has just agreed to hear, which involve lawsuits in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee, will be argued in April, and a decision is expected by late June.

“We’re really excited and obviously relieved that that the court will be hearing all the cases,” said attorney Dana Nessel, who represents the plaintiffs in the Michigan case. “It’s a great day in the United States today.”



Evan Wolfson, with pro-same sex marriage advocacy group Freedom to Marry, called the decision “another giant step toward the freedom to marry the constitution promises us all”.

Thirty-six states and the District of Columbia currently recognize same-sex marriages. A judge this week struck down South Dakota’s ban, which would make it the 37th, but that decision was immediately stayed upon appeal.



US attorney general Eric Holder said Friday that his Justice Department would likely weigh in with the supreme court on the side of legalizing same-sex marriage throughout the country.

“We expect to file a ‘friend of the court’ brief in these cases that will urge the supreme court to make marriage equality a reality for all Americans,” Holder said in a statement. “It is time for our nation to take another critical step forward to ensure the fundamental equality of all Americans – no matter who they are, where they come from, or whom they love.”

Randy Johnson, a plaintiff in the Kentucky case with his partner Paul Campion, said he was elated by the court’s announcement.

“Like any other family we do value love and togetherness, we have hopes, dreams, concerns, worries as families across the country and we certainly hope the court issues a uniform marriage equality ruling so that families like ours receive equal protection under the law,” he said.

He learned that the case was getting picked up while at work, when he received a message from their lawyer that said: “We are going to Washington.”

“We believe that the high court will decide in the spirit of fairness, we believe that the justices will recognize how unjust it is to deny our families the rights an privileges as well as responsibilities of other families,” Johnson said.

Because Johnson and Campion do not have the same rights as married couples in Kentucky, they each have adopted two of their four children. “We have to constantly be aware which child belongs to which parent and that is completely unnecessary,” said Johnson.

That the nation’s highest court is even taking up the issue suggests some confidence from its four liberal justices that Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is regarded as the court’s swing vote, is leaning towards marriage equality.



Kennedy authored the June 2013 decision that struck down parts of Doma. Then-president Bill Clinton signed Doma into law in 1996, barring same-sex married couples from accessing the same federal rights and benefits as heterosexual married couples.

Following the supreme court’s ruling, which also struck down California’s controversial ban on same-sex marriage, the practice became legal in 13 states and Washington DC. By this time last year, it was legal in 17 states and DC, with courts just starting to rule against state bans, putting the cases en route to the appellate courts. This swiftness surprised nearly everyone tied to the issue.

After the decision was reached, same-sex marriage advocates quickly challenged state bans and filed documents to speed up already existing cases.

One of the court’s liberal justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, had previously indicated the court would consider a case on the issue if the appellate circuits were to disagree with each other on it. That happened in November, when the sixth circuit court of appeals upheld several state bans, putting it at odds with four other appellate courts that ruled to strike down bans.

Cases consolidated before the supreme court will hear them

The historic decision to review the constitutionality of gay marriage was, as is often the case with the supreme court, buried in an innocuous-looking statement released just as much of Washington was packing up for the weekend.

It describes how the nine justices have decided to consolidate a number of different state level appeals into one case that will be split into two questions: does the 14th amendment of the constitution (granting equal protection to citizens under the law) force states to licence marriage between two people of the same sex, and secondly are they obliged to recognise marriages in other states if not?



Though seemingly simple questions, for which the court has allocated just two and a half hours of oral arguments, such a consolidation has long been the wish of gay rights campaigners who hope it will finally help settle the patchwork of competing legal precedents into one national law.

Petitioners and respondents – in this case mostly civil rights campaigners and Republican governors – have until February 27 and March 27 respectively to file their arguments with the court and then a further month to respond to each other.

This suggests the court will get to the case in plenty of time before it closes for the summer holiday in July and may also produce its final ruling by then.

Dan Roberts contributed reporting from Washington