(Reuters) – An appeals court will say on Tuesday whether it will revisit the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8 gay marriage ban or clear the way for the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the issue.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in February that the ban discriminated against gays and lesbians. It rejected the key argument by ban supporters that Proposition 8 furthered “responsible procreation.”
Ban proponents appealed the ruling to the full 9th Circuit, which could hear it with a larger panel of judges or decline to review it, opening the way for an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in the session that begins in October.
President Barack Obama last month turned gay marriage into a 2012 campaign issue, saying he believed same-sex couples should be able to marry. Republican Mitt Romney disagrees.
The vast majority of U.S. states limit marriage to opposite-sex couples, and popular votes have consistently approved bans on widening those rights.
But polls show growing acceptance of same-sex nuptials, which have been legalized in eight states and the District of Columbia, thanks to votes by legislators and court decisions.
-via Reuters.
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