[JURIST] Indiana and Wisconsin [cert. petitions, PDF] each asked the US Supreme Court [official website] on Tuesday to determine if same-sex marriage should be legal in all 50 states. These petitions bring the total number of same-sex marriage cases before the court to seven. The main questions asked in these cases are whether states can refuse to allow same-sex marriages and whether states can refuse to recognize same-sex marriages performed in another State. Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller [official website] stated that he wants the Supreme Court to hear his case or another of the numerous cases at the “earliest opportunity.”

Since the Supreme Court struck down [JURIST report] section three of the Defense of Marriage Act [text] last year, numerous state and federal courts have ruled on state same-sex marriage bans [JURIST backgrounder]. Earlier this month the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana became the first federal court to uphold a state same-sex marriage ban [JURIST report] since the Supreme Court’s ruling in United States v. Windsor. In August the Florida Second District Court of Appeal issued an opinion calling for a ruling on the constitutionality of the state’s same-sex marriage bann [JURIST report] by the Florida Supreme Court. The same day the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit dismissed a challenge [JURIST report] by the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) [advocacy website] to reinstate Oregon’s same-sex marriage ban, which was ruled unconstitutional [JURIST report] by a federal district court in May. Currently 19 US states and DC allow same-sex marriage, and more than 70 lawsuits relating to same-sex marriage [Freedom to Marry factsheets] are pending in 32 states.