Last month when the Supreme Court declined to hear appeals on several gay marriage cases many people either started a victory celebration or started to despair. I cautioned that I thought the court was merely delaying until the 6th circuit court of appeals ruled on several cases. The post I wrote at the time, “Supreme Court Hasn’t Decided Marriage Yet,” explains more what is going on, but here are a couple relevant quotes:
Rather than grant appeal based on any one case, it is far more likely that they are waiting for one of the circuits to return a contradictory ruling, such as is likely in the 6th circuit. It is much more within the role of the Supreme Court to settle conflicting circuit rulings than simply to decide to settle a “big issue.”
By not granting certiorari for these cases thus far they haven’t decided anything…other than to say “not yet.” In essence, they’re waiting for the kind of conflict and the kind of case we saw with Hobby Lobby. That day will come. It’s anybody’s guess how they will decide, but the day will come…just not yet.
This past week, my predictions came true as the 6th circuit did in fact return the contradictory ruling we were looking for by upholding bans on marriage redefinition. The timing from this point forward is anyone’s guess, but there is at least a good chance that we will see the Supreme Court take up the case this term. Now that there is a clear conflict, I’m also hopeful that the court will stay the lower court rulings that led to some states issuing marriage licenses that could very well be invalid in a few months. We’ll see. In the mean time lots of prayers are in order.