One Week Left Before Supreme Court's Marriage Meeting

Next Monday, September 29, the US Supreme Court will meet in closed session to decide whether to take a marriage case. They're expected to reveal their decision the following week, on October 6, but there's no way to predict what the court will announce.

They could choose one of the seven cases currently pending before them. Those cases originate in Virginia, Utah, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Indiana, and each presents slightly different issues.

But rulings in all seven cases are generally in agreement that marriage bans are unconstitutional. The justices may therefore delay a decision, in the hopes that a more controversial petition eventually arrives. That option seemed likely to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who revealed last week that the justices might opt to wait.

They could also simply deny all of the petitions, which would allow marriage to start immediately in numerous states. But that seems unlikely: over the past few months, the Supreme Court has imposed stays to prevent the start of marriage until they could issue a nation-wide decision. It would be surprising if they had imposed those stays, simply to overturn them without issuing a decision.