The U.S. Supreme Court returns to work on January 9, 2015. Its Conference Calendar for that date includes four same-sex marriage appeals from the Sixth Circuit, the only circuit court to uphold state same-sex marriage bans to date, and an appeal from Louisiana seeking to bypass Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals review, another case in which the court upheld the state’s same-sex marriage ban.
The cases from the Sixth Circuit are (via SCOTUSblog):
Obergefell v. Hodges (Ohio) Docket 14-556
Tanco v. Haslam (Tennessee) Docket 14-562
DeBoer v. Snyder (Michigan) Docket 14-571
Bourke v. Beshear (Kentucky) Docket 14-574
And from the state of Louisiana:
Robicheaux v. George (Louisiana) Docket 14-596
If the Court takes an initial vote on the question of granting or denying review of the appeals, if granted one or more of these appeals could be scheduled for briefing, oral argument, and a final decision in the current Term, which runs through the end of June.
The Court will not necessarily act on these appeals at its January 9, 2015 Conference. It is not uncommon for appeals to be relisted to a later Conference date. But these appeals will eventually be considered this Term.
I suspect the Supreme Court is going to put the final stamp of approval on same sex marriage and make it the law of the land. I think it would be difficult, if not impossible, to do otherwise at this point.
I think it will be very difficult for supreme court to put the tooth paste back in the tube. If they try to it will be interesting as mr. spock says!