Time magazine recently did a series of pieces that outlined same-sex marriage in America today. One of these pieces stated how same-sex marriage may enter into official national legal status. Unfortunately, this option would come through the divorce of a same-sex couple who happens to have adopted a child. The key to their rights may come in the form of the court recognizing the original marriage in order to enforce the divorce and child support aspects of the case. This would in turn give their marriage full faith and credit. (This idea comes from law professor Sam Marcosson of the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law)
Obviously these decisions would be left up to the Supreme Court, and as it stands now these decisions will most likely not be passed. But if a child custody case were to reach the courts after President Obama is able to make some appointments, then the outcome may be promising. Again, the court has been trending to be more liberal on cases dealing with the privacy of marriage, such as Lawrence v Texas (2003). However, there are those like Justice Scalia who thought that the decision “effectively decree(d) the end of all moral legislation.” I would like to point out that one of the attorneys who argued in the case, Paul Smith, indicated that “the court has taken sides in the culture war” and has gone away from its role as a “neutral observer.” Statements like these indicate that the strict constructivists on the court make have more of an activist agenda than was ever intended by our founders.
To read the whole articles from Time magazine click here and here.
A History of the Legal Standing of the Definition of Marriage 