'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says she is "very optimistic" the Supreme Court will strike down a 1996 law that defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman for all federal purposes, leading a chorus of Democratic lawmakers asking the judges to do so.
The federal government has a "powerful interest" in a single, uniform definition of marriage, even if it excludes gay unions that are legal in individual states, the lawyer defending the federal Defense of Marriage Act said Wednesday as the Supreme Court concluded two days of landmark arguments on gay marriage.
It is possible that in June 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court may fatally damage the institution of marriage by using a nonexistent clause in the Bill of Rights.
Lady Gaga may belt out that gays are "born this way," but questions about the origin and unchangeability of homosexuality are central to at least five lawsuits, including two before the Supreme Court next month.
The Supreme Court will take up California's ban on same-sex marriage, a case that could give the justices the chance to rule on whether gay Americans have the same constitutional right to marry as heterosexuals.
As hundreds of same-sex couples took their long-awaited wedding vows in Washington state Sunday, the constitutional battle in Washington, D.C., over gay marriage was just getting started.
The running fight over gay marriage is shifting from the ballot box to the Supreme Court.
A federal appellate court in Manhattan said the federal government's marriage law is unconstitutional, raising the likelihood that gay marriage will end up before the Supreme Court.
A federal appeals court in New York is set to take its turn Thursday at considering the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law restricting the recognition of same-sex unions that already has been struck down in several other places.
Marriage advocates are anxiously watching the Supreme Court to see which cases it will take up — or turn down — regarding the constitutional status of gay marriage.
The Defense of Marriage Act is set for a showdown in a federal appeals court later this month between those who say it is right for the government to speak of marriage only in heterosexual terms and those who say doing so discriminates against same-sex unions.
A federal judge in Manhattan joined a growing chorus of judges across the country Wednesday by striking down a key component of the federal law that defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman.
U.S. officials say the Obama administration will offer up to $33 million in rewards for information about top members of an Islamist extremist group in Somalia linked to al Qaeda.
The Republican leadership in the House stepped up its efforts Monday to defend the federal government's marriage law, which is already under attack or implicated in as many as 10 lawsuits.
After Wednesday's session, Ms. Windsor told reporters she thought the arguments over her case "went beautifully."
Supreme Court justices question DOMA's range, consider effect act has in states →
The nation's sea change on gay marriage is due to a "societal understanding" that came from places beyond political power of gay people, she said.
Supreme Court justices question DOMA's range, consider effect act has in states →
