This is pitting the 10th amendment against the 14th amendment, it seems to me.
The court, if it rules for the 10th amendment, will say that states can make their own rules.
If the court rules for the 14th, it will say “equal protection” means that, in their opinion, the practice of sodomy has nothing to do with what constitutes a marriage and if two practictioners of sodomy want to call their relationship a “marriage”, the state is obligated to grant their wishes, since the state also grants that wish to heterosexuals.
Well it’s more than that. States argue that the Defense of Marriage Act is an intrusion into an area normally controlled by state law — I can very easily see the Court striking down most or all of DOMA. I don’t see them buying this claptrap about the equal protection clause and the removal of “rights” w/Prop 8. But I’ve been wrong before.
Reynolds v. United States, 1878...
It defined marriage as one man and one woman.