Mags GarganWhen the US Supreme Court declined to review the appeals on rulings striking down same-sex marriage bans as unconstitutional, many people were left second-guessing why this happened and what it means for the future of same-sex marriages and bans on such marriages.
The court’s action gave the immediate go-ahead for same-sex marriages to take place in Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin, where the lower courts’ rulings against bans on such marriages will not stand. It also cleared a path for same-sex marriages in six other states within the jurisdictions of these federal circuit courts.
Although the implications of the high court’s move on the first day of its new session were fairly far reaching, opponents of same-sex marriage and its supporters – for different reasons – were not satisfied.
“Millions of Americans had looked to the court with hope that these unjust judicial decisions might be reversed,” said a statement from the chairmen of two US bishops’ committees.
“The Supreme Court’s action fails to resolve immediately the injustice of marriage redefinition, and therefore should be of grave concern to our entire nation,” said Bishop Richard J. Malone of Buffalo, New York, chairman of the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth, and Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco, chairman of the Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defence of Marriage.