The Supreme Court is expected to rule on two cases involving same-sex marriage on Wednesday, shortly after 10 a.m., concluding one of the more consequential weeks in recent years at the court.
One of the two cases concerns the federal Defense of Marriage Act of 1996, which denies federal benefits to gay and lesbian couples married in states that allow such unions. The second case challenges Proposition 8, California’s ban on same-sex marriage.
We realize that people will be eager to know what the rulings mean as soon as they are released (and you can read the decisions yourself when they are posted on the court’s Web site). But we also want to point out that the immediate descriptions of any ruling may not be very meaningful.
For one thing, a ruling could be complicated, as were last year’s halth care ruling and the 2000 Bush v. Gore decision, and not amenable to instant summarizing.
To complicate matters, the court seems likely to release the decisions separately, with several minutes between them. Court watchers generally expect the Defense of Marriage Act case to appear first, although anything is possible, including the rulings being released together.
Dozens of journalists for The New York Times, in Washington, California, New York and around the country, will be covering the rulings and the reactions to them by the public and those directly affected. At the center of the coverage is Adam Liptak, the Supreme Court reporter for The Times (and a lawyer), who will be in court to hear the rulings. He offered a preview of the decisions this week, and what they will say about the justices’ vision of equality, in Sunday’s New York Times.
The moment that we feel! comfortable with a ruling’s basic meaning, which could be almost immediately, we plan to explain the decision. But we promise not to bombard you with guesswork or unintelligible legal technicalities. The Times will also run blog posts from the legal experts at SCOTUSblog on our own site, as well as ask other outside experts to help readers understand the decision. Once the initial meaning of the ruling seems clear, Times reporters and editors will be analyzing it in real time, on our live blog dedicated to the ruling and on stories appearing across our digital platforms. We will also post updates to Twitter on @thecaucus and @nytimes, and post selected reactions from readers.
We expect to have Mr. Liptak’s initial story about any ruling by late morning or shortly after noon, not long after the court’s session has ended.
For background on same-sex marriage, we recommend: Mr. Liptak’s article on the history of gay clerks at the Supreme Court; on the legal strategy, with roots in San Francisco, that helped push the cases to the court so quickly; on the shadow of Roe v. Wade; and on the two days of oral arguments earlier this year. We also recommend Ashley Parker’s article on ! younger o! pponents of same-sex marriage; Sheryl Gay Stolberg’s profile of Brian S. Brown, a leading opponent of same-sex marriage, as well as her article on Ken Mehlman, a former Bush adviser turned advocate for same-sex marriage; Michael D. Shear’s article on the decisions that may await President Obama; and a recent New York Times/CBS poll, as described by Ms. Stolberg and Dalia Sussman.
