At a time when the gay and homosexual communities in the US are struggling hard to make their union ‘legal’ in the country, a nine judge panel of the Supreme Court will be meeting behind the closed doors on Friday in order to take decision on whether to hear any cases related to the contentious issue.
The country’s top court had in October last year decided to not take up the issue of state bans on same-sex marriage. And now the will once again meet to decide the fate of such cases. Currently, the top court has five pending cases related to gay marriage prohibitions in the states of Tennessee, Ohio, Kentucky Michigan and Louisiana.
The major legal issue is whether the bans imposed by some American states on the gay or same-sex marriages violate the US Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the country’s law.
According to the sources, an announcement in this regard is likely to arrive as soon as Friday after the meeting of the justices as part of their customary private deliberations on which case or cases to hear.
In October, the top court has decided not to hear the gay marriage issues when it had seven separate cases pending. The decision to not hear those cases caused major legal implications as it meant that same-sex marriage went ahead in five American states, while paving the way for it to begin in several other states.
Before the Supreme Court’s action in October last year, same-sex marriage was constitutionally legal in only 19 of the 50 American states. Currently, the figure has reached to 36.
It is noteworthy, the Supreme Court remains divided on gay rights. Hence, all eyes will be set on the Friday’s meeting of the nine justices and the final outcome of the meet.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.