NPR Legal Affairs Correspondent Nina Totenberg has covered many historic cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. She says the decision on same-sex marriage expected this month is “a very historic moment in the history of the nation and the court.”
The case, which includes a challenge to Michigan’s ban on same-sex marriage revolves around two questions. Totenberg told WMUK's Gordon Evans that the first is whether there is a Constitutional right to marriage. If there is no right to marriage, then Totenberg says the second question would have to be answered: Whether states have to recognize same-sex marriages from other states.
"I don't know how you roll the clock back"
Totenberg says she doesn’t like to predict how the Supreme Court will rule. But she says the court has refused to act on lower court rulings upholding legalized same-sex marriage. This case came before the Supreme Court, in part, because the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a federal judge’s ruling that Michigan’s ban on same-sex marriage violates the Constitution. Totenberg says “I don’t know how you roll the clock back” after not reviewing other federal court rulings. She says it’s hard to imagine that the Justices didn’t consider that when they decided not to take challenges to decisions that found there is a legal right to marry.
On Thursday Governor Rick Snyder signed legislation that allows faith-based adoption agencies to refuse to work with same-sex couples. Totenberg says legal challenges are likely for that law and similar legislation in other states. She says there could also be legal tests over laws that allow businesses to deny services to same-sex couples.
Two years ago the Supreme Court struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Totenberg says Justice Antonin Scalia in dissent predicted that the court would next uphold the right to same-sex marriage. Totenberg says most federal courts heard the ruling and Scalia’s dissent and have upheld the right to marry for same-sex couples. The decision from the Supreme Court is expected this month.
