Is no news good news, bad news, or just no news?
After meeting Monday for its first closed-door conference to begin deciding which cases to hear this year, the Supreme Court this morning announced the first round. No same-sex marriage case was among those granted certiorari — a hearing.
“So to clarify, the Court did not act on any of the same-sex marriage cases,” SCOTUSblog’s Amy Howe explains. “This could mean a couple of different things. It could mean that the petitions will be denied when the Court issues the rest of the orders from Monday’s conference — probably on Monday morning at 9:30 a.m. It could also mean that the Justices are taking more time to look at the cases: there are seven different petitions, involving a couple of different issues and different stances by state officials. Even if there are four votes to take up the issue, they may need additional time to figure out which case(s) and which question(s). The next conference is scheduled for next Friday, October 10, so if review is not denied on Monday, October 6, we likely would not hear anything until Tuesday, October 14 (because October 13 is a federal holiday).”
In other words, we wait.
The Justices are looking at a same-sex marriage cases in Utah, Oklahoma, Virginia, Indiana and Wisconsin.Â
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Image by cool revolution via Flickr