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Gay Marriage On The Docket

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An epic week on gay marriage before the Supreme Court. On Point sums up the arguments, the history, the outlook on gay marriage and the court.

Demonstrators in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, March 27, 2013. (AP)
Demonstrators in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, March 27, 2013. (AP)

The US Supreme Court takes on huge issues. But it takes a giant issue to fill the steps outside the court – and the whole country – with the kind of passion we’ve seen this week.

Gay marriage has gone from deep outlier to broad public acceptance with amazing speed. Now it is in the hands of the court. States’ rights. Federal obligations. History. Morality. A shifting culture. And individual rights and liberties under the US Constitution, all before the court.

This hour On Point: the arguments, the outlook, and the history of social change and the law as the Supreme Court weighs gay marriage.
- Tom Ashbrook

Guests

David Savage, covers the Supreme Court for the Los Angeles Times.

Suzanne Goldberg, Clinical Professor of Law, Director for the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law at Columbia University Law School.

Teresa Collett, professor of law at the University of St. Thomas.

Tom's Reading List

National Journal "The big news comes from the valuable wonks over at SCOTUSblog who are predicting that there's an 80 percent chance ... that DOMA gets struck down."

Washington Post, Dana Milbank "Only nine states and the District of Columbia allow gay marriage, and the majority of Americans favoring gay marriage is a narrow one, but there can be no mistaking which side has the energy. The most the Supreme Court can do is slow the inevitable march toward an idea whose time has come."

Los Angeles Times "Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who probably holds the deciding vote, said in the day's most poignant moment that he was troubled by the effect of Proposition 8 on the nearly 40,000 children in the state being raised by same-sex couples. The court should hear "the voice of these children," he said. "They want their parents to have full recognition and full status" that goes with marriage."

This program aired on March 28, 2013.

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