Where Chief Justice Roberts comes down on two gay-marriage cases could help shape his legacy as well as the court's relevance on social issues.
Chief Justice John Roberts preserved one of President Barack Obama's main legacies—and helped forge his own—by largely upholding the president's health-care law last year. Now, the two leaders' places in history are entwined again, as the Supreme Court prepares to hear two gay-marriage cases later this month.
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One case under consideration concerns the Defense of Marriage Act, which denies federal recognition to same-sex couples married under state law. A second concerns California's Proposition 8, a 2008 voter initiative amending the state constitution to restrict marriage to a man and a woman.
In both cases, the Obama administration says the laws unconstitutionally burden same-sex couples without valid reasons. Defenders of the laws say nothing in the Constitution prevents restricting marriage to heterosexuals. Among their arguments for a restriction: Only the union of a man and a woman can lead to natural procreation.
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Thu Mar 14, 2013 9:57 pm
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