2 Nurses might make history by having the Supreme Court Take the Gay Marriage Case

                                                                    

Two Michigan nurses are expected on Monday to take their same-sex marriage case to the U.S. Supreme Court — a move that could land them in history books as the pioneers who made gay marriage legal in America.

But two things need to happen first:

One, the nation's highest court has to agree to hear their case.

And, it has to rule in their favor by deciding that gay marriage is protected by the Constitution.

The Michigan plaintiffs are not alone

 Nurses that might be making big history

Attorneys for same-sex couples challenging Michigan’s ban on same-sex marriage asked the high court to address the question raised by the case in a petition filed Monday: “Whether a state violates the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by denying same- sex couples the right to marry.” Attorneys for the case challenging Kentucky’s marriage ban asked the court to address a similar question, and whether the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment are violated by refusing to recognize legal marriages between individuals of the same sex performed in other jurisdictions. 

In a 2-1 decision handed down Nov. 6, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld same-sex marriages bans in four states — Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee — breaking with other federal appeals courts that have considered the issue. Lawyers for the cases in Ohio and Tennessee filed their petitions for writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court on Friday.

The petition filed in the Michigan case argues that the question of a constitutional right for same-sex couples to marry is “highly unlikely” to be resolved without intervention by the Supreme Court. “Rather, considering the issue now would substantially promote judicial economy, as there are currently twenty-six cases pending in lower federal courts presenting issues that would be resolved or substantially advanced by the Court in this case,” the petition continues.

As noted in the Michigan petition, GLAD’s Mary Bonauto, who was lead counsel in the 2004 case that legalized same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, has joined the legal team challenging Michigan’s marriage ban.

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