Same-sex marriage cases wind their way to Supreme Court as political climate changes
The DOMA case is part of the legal wrangling that has slowed what once looked like a relatively timely showdown in the Supreme Court over same-sex marriage.
Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD), the group that has spearheaded legal challenges to DOMA, does not foresee any decision by the justices until 2013.
And the celebrated effort to recognize a constitutional right to same-sex marriage — led by the political odd couple of Democratic stalwart David Boies and former George W. Bush solicitor general Theodore Olson — is caught in a tangle of judicial procedures.
(It has also literally spawned a sideshow: Last week, the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which is behind the lawsuit, staged a Broadway play based on the trial’s transcript; actor John Lithgow portrayed Olson.)
U.S. District Judge R. Vaughn Walker in August 2010 struck California’s 2008 voter-approved Proposition 8 — which amended the state constitution to limit marriage to a man and a woman — as violating the due process and equal protections of the U.S. Constitution.
The appeal is now bouncing back and forth between the California Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco.