From The Guardian UK: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/05/prop-8-supreme-court-california-gay-marriage
Federal appeals court declines to hear arguments on California's same-sex marriage ban as supporters dealt another blow
A Californian appeals court has cleared the way for the supreme court to hear a landmark case on same-sex marriage.
The ninth circuit US court of appeals on Tuesday declined to rehear arguments over Proposition 8, California's ban on gay marriage, which the court invalidated in February.
The move sets the stage for what looks sure to be a contentious supreme court hearing that could come as early as this year.
Three
judges dissented from the opinion and cited president Barack Obama's
recent comments that he would like to see the debate over gay marriage
continue "in a respectful way." The dissenters wrote: "Our court has
silenced any such respectful conversation."
The decision comes
less than a week after a federal appeals court in Boston ruled that the
Defense of Marriage Act (Doma), a federal law declaring marriage to be
solely between a man and a woman, was unconstitutional
because it denies same-sex couples the same benefits afforded to
heterosexual couples. That case too appears to be headed for the supreme
court.
Gay marriage supporters cheered the decision. Evan Wolfson, founder and president of lobby group Freedom to Marry,
said: "It's now been three-and-a-half years since the freedom to marry
was stripped from from loving and committed same-sex couples. It is long
past time for this 'gay exception' to marriage in California to come to an end."
Opponents
said they were confident that the supreme court would uphold their view
of traditional marriage. Brian Raum, senior council for Alliance Defense Fund, part of the Prop 8 legal defense team, said same sex marriage remained "unconstitutional".
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