Metro Weekly

Supreme Court schedules same-sex marriage arguments for April 28

U.S. Supreme Court Justices
U.S. Supreme Court Justices

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a series of landmark same-sex marriage cases on April 28, the court announced Thursday.

In January, the nation’s highest court agreed to consolidate four cases challenging same-sex marriage bans in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee and address two questions presented by the cases: 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?

Oral arguments will begin at 10 a.m. on April 28 and allot a total of 90 minutes to the first question and one hour to the second question. The court will post the audio recording and unofficial transcript of the oral arguments no later than 2 p.m. that same day.

The Supreme Court’s decision to take up the cases came after a 2-1 decision handed down Nov. 6 by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld same-sex marriages bans in the four states, breaking with other federal appeals courts that have considered the issue and creating a split among the circuit courts.

A decision by the court on marriage equality is expected by the end of June.

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