The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in the case of Prop. 8, which bans gay marriage in California. The issue has been a hot topic across the country, with millions keeping their eyes on the court to see how it rules on the issue. What had, at first, appeared like a difficult case for gay marriage advocates to win has built up momentum and began to look like a possible victory.
However, several reports out of the court Tuesday said that the justices might issue a limited ruling, not the broad, sweeping kind hoped for by gay marriage advocates. After oral arguments, NBC's Pete Williams reported that it appeared "quite obvious that the U.S. Supreme Court is not prepared to issue any kind of sweeping ruling" on the issue of gay marriage that might imply that gay and lesbian couples have the right to marry in any state. Williams sense little eagerness for a broad ruling, instead feeling that the justices might role solely on the issue in California and write a ruling that only affected people in California and leave the issue undecided for the nation as a whole.
Similar concerns were reported by the Associated Press, which noted that several justices raised doubts that "the case was properly before them."
Both sides of the issue, for and against gay marriage, came up during oral arguments before the justices, ABC News reported. Conservative Justice Antonin Scalia asked for an explanation as to "when it became unconstitutional for states to define marriage as heterosexual," ABC News reported. Another question that came up, asked by Justice Elena Kagan, was how allowing gay and lesbian couples to get legally married and have those marriages recognized by the government would do any harm. The lawyer responded, according to ABC, that the future harm was hard to predict.
California voters passed Prop. 8 in 2008. The law said that marriage could only legally be between one man and one woman.
