Their chances don't improve

Adam Liptak of the New York Times noticed many of the Supreme Court justices were wondering if taking the Calif. gay marriage case was a good idea. They appeared to be looking for a way to not decide the case. So then why, back in November, did they take it? Liptak ponders that question.

Part of the answer is that it takes 4 justices to accept a case and 5 to decide it. That's right they don't need a majority to accept a case.

When the justices meet to decide what cases to accept it is in a room without any of their clerks. The only documentation that comes out of the room is whether the case is accepted or not. It doesn't show how many votes it got or who voted which way.

We sometimes learn how a justice votes on acceptance, but only when their private papers are made public. For these marriage equality cases that will likely be 50 years from now.

Even so, Liptak thinks that certain comments made during oral arguments provide hints:

After Justice Anthony M. Kennedy suggested that the court should dismiss the case, Justice Antonin Scalia tipped his hand.

“It’s too late for that now, isn’t it?” he said, a note of glee in his voice.

“We have crossed that river,” he said.

Liptak thinks the four conservatives agreed to the case to get as much of a conservative ruling as they can now because they know their chances of such a ruling do not improve in the years ahead.



Dan Savage takes on the "procreation" argument that was used before the Supremes, with humorous results. The video is 4 minutes.



And Jon Stewart takes on all the other arguments that were used against us.