On Friday afternoon, January 16, the United States Supreme Court announced that it will take up marriage cases on appeal from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit covering Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.

According to an Associated Press report on WRAL.com, the case is expected to be argued in April, and a decision could be made by the High Court as early as late June.

The order issued by the Supreme Court late Friday states, “The cases [from these four states] are consolidated and the petitions for writs of certiorari are granted limited to the following questions:

Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex? Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-state?”

See the North Carolina Family Policy Council’s previous story on the Sixth Circuit ruling upholding the constitutionality of marriage as the union of one man and one woman.