SCOTUS Chief Justice John Roberts

Last Friday, the SCOTUS conducted an important chambers conference to decide whether to grant certiorari this term to the consolidated appeals in the DeBoer case.  April DeBoer's case was consolidated with other cases from Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee, and Sixth Circuit Judge Jeffrey Sutton reversed federal district court judges that invalidated state law same-sex marriage and adoption bans.

A ruling from the High Court on this petition could come by the end of the week. Then, the cases could be argued this term, which goes through most of June.

Here is a good analysis of Judge Sutton's decision from a Huffington Post law blogger; and here is Lyle Denniston's [SCOTUSBlog] take on the judicial conference:

The release of orders on Friday had been eagerly awaited across the country, because the Court, at its private Conference, was scheduled to take its first look at the new round of cases on state power to ban same-sex marriage.  The Court’s next chance to issue any order on those cases will be at 9:30 a.m. Monday, with the release of a lengthy list of actions on new cases.  If no action on the five marriage cases comes then, the cases are likely to be rescheduled for a Conference next Friday.

Meanwhile, the costs to the various states in their largely unsuccessful challenges to the same-sex marriage civil rights movement, and their equally unsuccessful attempts to enforce state law same-sex marriage bans, are mounting.  Attorney fee petitions are slowly collection across the country seeking reimbursement for the legal costs of striking the state law bans.

The price tag is the the millions and will surely increase over the next few years.  Who do you think should pay this price: the taxpayers or the litigants?

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