Marriage Equality and the Supreme Court

  Since marriage equality has caused such an uproar in the past week, I looked into the Supreme Court rulings and the Constitutional amendments in relation to the hot-button issue. DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) rules that marriage is only between a man and a woman, but the Supreme Court needs to decide if DOMA violates the Equal Protection clause by refusing benefits to same-sex couples. Additionally, same sex marriages were legal in the state of California until voters passed Proposition 8, defining marriage between only a man and a woman. Decisions on the cases will have no expected ruling until June. Until then, many American Facebook users have changed their profile picture to a red or pink equal sign as a display of protest. The movement toward marriage equality grows as younger generations develop more liberal opinions on the matter. Huge political and pop culture leaders have been taking their stances as politics continue to polarize in the heat of debate. Despite the backlash of proponents of same sex marriages, the issue still remains: is the Supreme Court lording over a case of equality or Constitutional traditional values (i.e. the values of the Church)?