Supreme Court Justices split on gay marriage legislation
The Supreme Court appeared divided on Tuesday on whether same-sex couples are constitutionally entitled to marriage rights in a debate on one of the most polemic civil rights issues of the 21st century.
Two separate arguments were scheduled over Tuesday's session. The first concerns whether the Constitution requires states to issue marriage licenses to "two people of the same sex". The second is about whether states must recognise same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.
Gay and lesbian people are equal, they deserve the equal protection of the laws, and they deserve it now.
Justice Anthony Kennedy argued that the traditional definition of marriage, which has survived millenia, could not be flippantly rewritten, emphasizing that same-sex couples could not join the institution without inherently altering it.
Meanwhile, the court's more liberal justices highlighted that legalising gay marriage would do no harm to opposite-sex unions and that failure to do so effectively conferred second-class citizenship.
"How does withholding marriage from one group increase the value to the other group?" Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked.
379 business have called for the Supreme Court to overturn state bans, The Financial Times reported.
"Gay and lesbian people are equal, they deserve the equal protection of the laws, and they deserve it now," said the Obama administration's lawyer Donald Verrilli, who urged the court to act sooner rather than later.
A verdict is expected to be reached within the next few months.