Dahlia Lithwick of Slate proposes that the gay marriage cases will be the most important gay rights cases ever. I think everybody agrees.
These cases will be argued on April 28, 2015, in two weeks, with a decision in late June. Between now and then, it behooves us to prepare.
First, Dahlia Lithwick makes a podcast available of an interview with Paul Smith, the lawyer who led the legal team that successfully overturned Bowers v. Hardwick, and won Lawrence v. Texas, which invalidated sodomy laws everywhere in the country. Smith discusses how we got here, what the major issues are, and some of his own personal history with these cases. The podcast is good, and you can link to it here.
Second, the Supreme Court has asked that all parties to these cases address the question, “Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex?” Among the scores of amicus briefs submitted, there are two, one from South Carolina and one from the Constitutional Accountability Center both of which argue for an originalist reading of the Fourteenth Amendment as it pertains to the marriage cases. But interestingly, they come down on opposite sides of the marriage question. South Carolina is against it, naturally, and the Constitutional Accountability Center is in favor of it. Mark Joseph Stern of Slate discusses both of them, as introduction, and then provides links to the amicus briefs themselves.
In the next two weeks, I take up these issues one-at-a-time. I will also pass on to you links to everything that I read that I think is going to be useful in the run-up to the hearings on April 28 and to the decision at the end of June.