WASHINGTON
The U.S. Supreme Court said Friday that it will hear Constitutional arguments on the legality of same-sex marriages.
The Court granted four petitions from Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, and Tennessee, that seeks a review of a federal appeals court ruling in November that found that there is no federal right to same-sex-marriage.
The justices will consider two question: “Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex?,” and “does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-state?"
The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution various aspects of the civil rights, including racial discrimination, reproductive rights, election recounts, gender discrimination and racial quotas in education.
If the Court concludes that the Constitution allows for same-sex marriage as part of federal civil rights, bans on such marriages would fall in 14 states.
The Court set April 17 as the deadline for the final legal briefs, suggesting the case will be heard on or near the end of the current term’s final days for arguments, which conclude April 29.
Same-sex marriage issue has been widely discussed in the last two years, and is currently legal in 36 states and the District of Columbia, combined to hold approximately 70 percent of the American population.
