From The Advocate: http://www.advocate.com/politics/marriage-equality/2012/12/07/supreme-court-hear-prop-8-doma-cases
BY Julie Bolcer
December 07 2012
The moment activists have long awaited arrived today as the Supreme Court announced it will hear a range of cases on same-sex marriage.
The Supreme Court indicated that it will hear the challenge to the California marriage ban, called Proposition 8, and another by an elderly lesbian widow, Edith Windsor, against the Defense of Marriage Act.
The high court shared its plan in orders released Friday afternoon, SCOTUSblog reports. The Prop. 8 case challenges the California ballot initiative that overturned marriage equality in 2008, while the DOMA challenge concerns Windsor, an 83-year-old from New York who was forced to pay more than $360,000 in estate taxes because the federal government did not recognize her marriage to her late spouse, Thea Spyer.
(RELATED: The Story of When Edie Met Thea)
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals decided for Windsor in October, but she had already made an appeal to the Supreme Court asking for urgency while citing her advanced age and declining health.
“When Thea and I met nearly 50 years ago, we never could have dreamed that the story of our life together would be before the Supreme Court as an example of why gay married couples should be treated equally, and not like second-class citizens,” said Windsor in a statement released by the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing her. “While Thea is no longer alive, I know how proud she would have been to see this day. The truth is, I never expected any less from my country.”
(RELATED PROFILE: The Fight of Edith Windsor’s Life)
The Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments in March and issue a decision by the end of its term in June 2013.
Word of the orders follows weeks of anticipation and two private conferences by the nine justices. The court had been asked to hear 11 petitions related to marriage equality, including cases about Proposition 8, same-sex domestic partnerships in Arizona, the Nevada constitutional ban, and eight challenges to DOMA. The cases challenge the constitutionality of section 3 of the 1996 law, which prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages.
Continue reading at: http://www.advocate.com/politics/marriage-equality/2012/12/07/supreme-court-hear-prop-8-doma-cases
