The Supreme Court on Friday took no
action on cases involving marriage rights for gay and lesbian
couples.
The court was expected to consider
cases involving the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), Proposition 8,
California's gay marriage ban, and an Arizona law which repealed
benefits for the domestic partners of state employees.
“Failure to act on #ssm today
probably means [the Supreme Court] needs time to work out which
case(s) to take,” SCOTUSblog noted in a tweet to followers.
Lee Swislow, the executive director of
the legal group Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD)
said in an email to supporters: “I wanted to let you know that
there is no news on our DOMA challenges today. This afternoon the
U.S. Supreme Court announced that it had agreed to hear several
cases, but none involving DOMA. We could hear more news on Monday,
or possibly later in the week.”
The court's next scheduled conference
to consider new cases is on December 7.
(Related: NOM's
Thomas Peters: Supreme Court ruling against DOMA would spark culture
war.)