The U.S. Supreme Court has turned into something like the most popular girl in high school, with over a dozen states jostling to invite it to the legal equivalent of senior prom in a few weeks.

September 29 is the big date when the Justices return from their summer vacation, which we assume they spent backpacking around Europe and staying at hostels in an attempt to “discover themselves.” They’ll be meeting in a closed session to look at some of the petitions before them, and decide which ones they want to take.

Or they might not. They could always decide to put off the decision until later. That would be particularly likely if there’s a decision in the Ninth or Sixth Circuits between now and the end of the month. A whole bunch of cases are awaiting a decision right now, and the Justices might decide to wait until petitions from those cases show up. (Or they might not. They are capricious, like cats.)

Also this week, we have some delightful news about Stuart Delery, one of the unsung heroes of the marriage equality movement who just got a well-deserved raise. While you were getting all worked up about whether Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie should get married, Stuart was leading all the hard work at the Department of Justice to overturn DOMA. For years, he’s been the DOJ’s champion for marriage equality, and with last week’s raise, he’s now the highest-ranking out government lawyer in American history. Somebody please throw a parade so we can make him grand marshall of it.